When I went home from church yesterday I was still thinking about Ruth's sermon on love.  One line really caught me.  She said (more or less) In the end what really matters is who and how you love.

I could not have chosen a better day to go see the movie, Venus.  Peter O'Toole plays an aging actor who becomes friends with a young woman who is staying with her great-uncle.  This is truly a movie about who you love and how you love and what difference it makes in the end.  I laughed and cried through the entire movie and can't stop thinking about it.  What an amazing love story in the agape sense of the word.

I really recommend reading Ruth's sermon before you go.  Perfect fit!

If you have issues with foul language you had better skip this one.  Sorry.

Now that the nominations are out for the Oscars I have to catch up on the movies I missed.  My goal is always to have seen all the best picture nominees at least.

So I keep hearing about Departed and decided to see it.  MISTAKE.  The acting was great and the story was compelling.  But it was so violent and so pointless.  The message of the movie seemed to be that is doesn't matter how you live your life, if you are good or evil, because in the end you get shot either way.

This movie also raised one of my pet peeves.  All of the love scenes were filmed by suggestions.  The audience sees just enough to know what is happening but the actual act is off camera so as to keep the rating low.  But the violence is all shown full force, all the blood, all the guts, all the death and that doesn't keep it from the dreaded adult only rating.

My father must be rolling over in his grave as I strut around in my Colt's jersey and even read the sports page in the Star.   I have always hated football on TV.  I would go to high school games (more about friends than football) and I even went to several college games.  But football on TV was boring.  It kept me from watching anything good.  And it meant we had to be quiet so we didn't disturb dad as he watched.

When I lived in Nebraska the whole state shut down for University of Nebraska games.  I went shopping during the games since the stores were always empty.

In Detroit I learned to enjoy the Pistons but never watched the Lions.  In DC I managed to ignore the Redskins totally.

But this Colts thing is contagious.  I realize now that the more you watch the more fun it is to watch.  It takes a while to le ...

The movies are really popping all of a sudden.  Notes on a Scandal is excellent acting and a gripping story but it is very depressing.  Lies, deception, cheating, manipulating, and only about 30 seconds of hope in the entire movie.

The Painted Veil was more hopeful while still full of lies and deception, etc.  Walter Fane is a doctor, actually a bacteriologist working in China.  He marries Kitty, a spoiled young woman desparate to get out of her mother's home and boring life.

Through some interesting circumstances Walter and Kitty end up in a small, isolated village suffering a terrible cholera epidemic.

Lift the painted veil that people wear to hide their real selves, poet Percy Shelley suggested, and there's a good chance you will find fear and ugline ...

Children of Men depicts our world in the year 2027.  Human beings are facing extinction because of an unexplained fertility defect.  No children have been born for 18 years

England appears to be the only nation on earth that is still functioning and they are not doing it all that well.  There is extreme pressure to keep the fugees (refugees) out so they are ...

Here is an interesting quote I came across today.  I was just wondering the other day if I had grown wiser with age or simply tired.  Why was I no longer trying to change the world?  Maybe this says it...

A wise, old Middle-Eastern mystic said this about himself. “I was a revolutionary when I was young, and all my prayer to God was: ‘Lord, give me the energy to change the world.’ As I approached middle age and realized that my life was half gone without my changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to: ‘Lord, give me the grace to change all those who come into contact with me. Just my family and friends and I shall be satisfied.’ Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered, I have begun to see how foolish I have been. My one prayer now is: ‘Lord, give me the grace to change myse ...

New Year's Eve at the Glass Factory in Louisville, KY there was a woman named Rebecca who was reading palms.  I had never had my palm read but couldn't pass up the chance for some entertainment.  I tried not to reveal anything and did not respond when she said anything.

She looked at my palm and told me I am strong and like to be in control.  Duh!  Then she struggled with what I might do for a living- you work with kids? you are in a healing profession? You command a large audience?  You do public speaking?

Jill and Jay and JacK all sat listening in awe as this woman nailed me.  When I asked her about my future she said I need to follow my heart and it will lead me.

When Jay asked about his future she told him to follow his heart.  She told Jack and Jill to follow their hearts as well.   That is what the future holds f ...

Nothing like the holidays to bring out family differences!  Everywhere we go this holiday season we hear stories about the other families they have celebrated with or will shortly.  Everyone has stories to tell about their other family's dysfunction.  We all sit and laugh about those crazy relatives.  But then I leave and have to wonder what stories about us are being told to the next round of visitors.

We all have our own strangeness.  We all have our own ways of dealing with rowdy kids, late meals, the family member who is never on time, and the one with very different political views.  Then we find ourselves all at the same table sharing a meal and then sitting around a tree trading gifts.

Some of us just suck it up and endure.  Some of us yell back at the yellers and argue with the disagreeable ones.  Some of us just zone out and ignore everyone.&nbs ...

This is one of the quietest times of the year for me- the two hours between the 7:00 Christmas Eve Jazz Service and the 10:30 prelude for the 11:00 CandleLight service.  The church is pretty empty except for the hardworking custodians.  The jazz band is gone and the chancel choir has not yet arrived.

If I go home during this time I get tired and it is hard to come back.  So I stay in my office.  Some kind soul left a cup of Starbucks on my desk.  Yum.

So this quiet time each Christmas Eve is something I look forward to.  It is a time to reflect on the year that is about finished and the one about to begin.  It is a time to think about the places I have witnessed Christ's birth and the ways I have ignored his coming.

This has actually been a rather strange Christmas.  For one thing the warm weather is odd.  We had to tu ...

Last night Jack and I stopped by the Wube familiy's apartment to drop off some food.  The boys were dancing around the room showing us all the packages under the tree and playing CD's of American Christmas music (Santa Baby, won't ya come'on down my chimney tonight).

I sat in the chair holding the new baby, Merhowe.  He is one month old and he weighs 10 lbs.  He is beautiful.  The older boys were jabbering away in English.  Abrehet was putting together English words to join in the conversation and Mekonen was relaxing after a long day of work.

Exactly a year ago we were welcoming this refugee family from their homeland of Eritrea.  They'd spent years in a refugee camp and they arrived in the snow and ice with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the sandals on their feet.  We were teaching them to use running water and a stove, refridgerator and microwave.& ...