Some sentences set me off...

It's been raining a bit lately, so I've been inside doing a lot of reading. It's a good thing to read, especially as a student who is assigned hundreds of pages a week of reading. It's easier to do the reading on days like today where it rains, and rains, and rains.

The other day I was reading a note in a church communication that really got under my skin, so much so that I stopped reading at that point and decided if there was anything else worth reading in that particular communication that I would read it another day. Here's the sentence that irked me:
The women's group in any church, should be and generally is the strongest group in the church community.
UGH! I can't believe that a church would allow such falsehood to be printed! Where has it ever been written that a women's group should be the strongest in a church community? Does the leadership of any church really believe this?

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for strong women's groups, and men's groups, and youth groups, but to value one group as being the "strongest" just sets me off. Is this not what Jesus came to abolish? It's no wonder that authors like David Murrow are writing books like "Why Men Hate Going to Church". If there really are supposed to be "stronger" ministries and power plays within a church community and such power plays are encouraged by the leadership of the congregation it's a wonder that anyone wants to be a part of the church any longer ... maybe that's why we are seeing declines in the membership of mainline churches, because we are allowing thinking like this to drive the ministry of our church.

What if we made statements like, "the service to our neighbors should be the strongest ministry in our church" now we're getting somewhere. Last I checked Jesus didn't come to pit one group against another, Jesus came as servant to all. I'm all for following that example.

It's a BIKE Lane!!!

Had I seen a sign like this on Friday, I would be in a lot less pain than I am today, though the sign is not entirely accurate for my experience. Here's the story ...

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon here in Berkeley perfect for a bike ride. So, my wife and I ventured out to one of the many trails that lead away from Berkeley along the bay ... yes it's a tough life living in this area ... as we rode along we encountered some oncoming cyclists and joggers. Now, the cyclists I can handle, afterall, it's a BIKE trail, but the joggers upset me a bit.

Yeah, I know they want a safe place to jog away from traffic, but certainly there are safer places to jog. Here was the kicker, up ahead of us I noticed a group of school-aged joggers coming at us. It really wouldn't have irked me as much, but I flashed back to the week before on a different trail where a school group was using the bike trail as their "track" and were running sprints in both lanes, toward oncoming cyclists and didn't seem to want to get out of the cyclist's way. At least this week the group wasn't sprinting in both lanes, but they were running in groups, some two across the oncoming lane (which was fun) but some three abreast forcing one of the runners into MY lane.

Now the first such group that we encountered had "smart" runners. I call them "smart" because the runner that was in our lane was "smart" enough to get out of our lane and fall in behind his friends, we passed happily and kept going. The next group apparently did not have "smart" runners as the runner in my lane decided to stay in the lane. Yes, that's right, with two bicyclists riding single-file toward him this teen-ager kept running toward us. O.K. here's where the story kicks into slow-motion because so much happened at the same time and much of it revolves around my thoughts.

I noticed my wife pass narrowly by the boy who had invaded our lane. My mind began thinking, "surely this teen-ager is going to get out of my way" I began to slow down my bike since there was a curb to my right that would have prohibited my using the grass to get around the invader. I noticed the oncoming boy looking as though he was trying to step in front of his friends, but he didn't make it in time, and just like the Batman shows of the 60's, "KABAM" I colided with this teenager.

As I fell to the ground, I had wonderful thoughts. As I felt my helmeted head hit the pavement, I thought "sure am glad I am wearing a helmet" then I felt my shoulder hit the pavement and I slid along the pavement a bit and I thought "sure am glad I am wearing long sleeves or I would be a real bloody mess" then my side hit the curb and I thought, "I wonder if I broke a rib or two, that's going to be painful" and finally the thought that brought me out of slow motion and back to the real world, "I definitely got the wind knocked-out of me, start breathing, start breathing!"

Well, you can tell by my typing this that I survived the incident, though even now several days later I have a bit of pain in my back, the feeling of a knot that prevents me from breathing as deeply as I would like or moving in ways that seem "natural". In some ways the "best" pain of all was last night when I sneezed and had this feeling like someone poked a finger sharply straight through my body, wow, what an incredible feeling of pain that I really would rather not have to re-live.

That's the story for today, I could go on and describe the road-rash that I got, the bruises I have, how on Saturday the microwave died, on Sunday we bought a new television and on Monday a new microwave (which was on an incredible sale), and today it was back to the usual flow of the day, study, go to class, study, study, study.

Why even watch?

I don't know why I even watch the TV Guide Channel. O.K. I know ... it's because I want to know what's on T.V. But am I the only one that finds the "programming" on the TV Guide Channel to be completely and utterly annoyingly ridiculous?

I don't get why Joan and Melissa Rivers are entertaining. They annoy me, I have never wanted to destroy things as much in my life as when I see them on television. It doesn't stop there, though, all of the programming on the TV Guide Channel is inane and attempts to be funny but always seems to forget rule #1, if you have to explain it, it's not funny. Maybe I'm just missing the "sense of humour" gene that exists in today's culture. I don't find "The Office" funny and yet it wins awards and I hear people try to explain why it is funny. Rule #1, if you have to explain it, it's not funny.

I do have to laugh from time to time at the TV Guide Channel. When they show "commercials" for various programming that is coming up, 9 times out of 10 the audio doesn't match the video, so you'll be watching the video advertising the Da Vinci Code, but the audio is Joan Rivers explaining her latest plastic surgery. Now that is funny!

Let's talk funny for a moment, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, My Name is Earl ... now that's humour! Why can't there be more shows like this on television. Maybe it's for the better, I do need an excuse to do my homework!

Have you watched this?

Have you ever experienced the "deer in the headlights" experience when watching television?

I find this show to be one of those shows, no matter how hard I try to not watch it, it ends up on the t.v. and I end up watching the whole episode. But I also find that I start yelling at the show, "How can people really be this ignorant?"

The show seems to do a good job of revealing that no matter if you are a conservative or a liberal or somewhere in between, people can be thick-headed and closed-minded to views other than their own. Each episode has a formula ... two families one with rigid rules the other with hardly a rule; one family the kids want more freedom, the other family the kids want more time with their parents; one family the man doesn't help around the house at all; one family the woman is generally "Susie Homemaker".

In the end everyone ends up bending a little, despite their best intentions to "hold true to who they are". If only the whole world could learn this one little lesson.

I don't usually watch this show ... Really.

I'm not usually a channel-surfer, I definitely don't watch Tyra Banks' talk show, but last night I found myself hooked by the show's introduction.

No, it wasn't because Tyra was standing there delivering her monologue in a bathing suit (though she was), it was because of the topic that Tyra was talking about.

If you've been watching the entertainment headlines lately, you may have seen pictures or heard about the "fat" photos of Tyra Banks. I personally could care less, but it brought to the front of her show a wonderful topic about the image that women are expected to portray in order to be considered "sexy" or "attractive".

I read an article in the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times at the beginning of January talking about how size "0" wasn't "small enough" for some women and how terrible this issue is. The issue at hand is how women keep trying to fit into smaller sizes because that's what "fashion" says is "in"

O.K. So this all ties together in the fact that I'm so excited to finally see a television program that is being real about telling people that it's o.k. to have a "normal" body. I agree that Americans are in general a bit overweight (I am a perfect example of that) and that we should aim to be healthier, but I also think that media images of rail-thin models are unreal and damaging to all of us.

It frustrates me that I try on clothing that is supposed to be an "XL" and it doesn't fit over my shoulders. As I noted earlier, I'm bigger than I could be, but on the scale of size, I shouldn't be too big for an XL. Ironically, I try on other clothes and a "Large" fits just fine. I guess this is a whole other issue about fashion and trying to make people "feel better" about themselves. But this gets at the real problem: that we aim to find our value in the clothes we wear when we should find our value in whose we are.

I was pleased to hear Tyra comment in her monlogue that she is "strong enough" and has a "good support system" so that she can "overcome these attacks". It is my hope and prayer that we can all be a support system to each other, to remind each other that we are created in God's image, and that when God created us God said, "it is good" (Genesis 1)