New Coldplay single you should get it if you haven’t already. Its free!
Its a bit different than the typical colplay we are all used to but still good amazing art which is rare in pop music.
enjoy
So i really don’t care too much about pop culture news or gossip journalism. For the most part it just annoys me. But you may have seen my blog on Billy Ray Cyrus being a tool. Well I have a few more comments on BRC cause he has fully solidified the fact that he is a tool.
If you have a pulse and live in America then i am sure that you have heard about the new Vanity Fair pictures of Mylee Ray Cyrus. Yeah i am disgusted with the photos of a 15 year old girl only wearing a sheet but Vanity Fair is notorius for their racey photos (pregnant and naked demi moore… I was young but i remember…) But honestly I am not surprised.
But here is the one that got me:
I think that affection between a father and his children is extremely important. But that should not be this creepy. Miley is definately a young woman and by the way that she is dressed in the hip hugger and tank she is not daddy’s little girl.
So BRC get a grip! Get over yourself (cause everybody else is over you. ) Be a parent and protect your child from all of this exploitation. Disney’s exploitation is one thing (Miley Cyrus is projected to be a billionare by the time she is 18 ) but Vanity Fair?
And seriously, I hope this is the last time i have to blog about you Billy.
So I am a bit confused as to which season we are exactly in right now. Seems as though the last couple of weeks we have been experiencing all four seasons in a day.
Seriously last Sunday my wife and I were driving to Bellevue and we went through rain snow and then sunshine before we got there. Spring is my favorite season and so far i feel a little bit cheated. Hopefully May brings a bit more of the spring weather that i crave.
I wandered upon my old blog this evening and it reminded me of one of the most frustrating yet exciting seasons of my life, the first three years of college. I learned a lot. Not so much in classes but about myself and about life and my place in this world. So it is really interesting to look back upon that with where i am now in life. I am much more settled and much more stable. However, i fear that i may have lost some ambition. I hope that i have become what i once was becoming…
you are more than welcome to take a look.
My movie collection typically consists of movies that i have found to be worthwhile. I am intrigued by the process of film-making and story telling. So i usually try to buy special edition dvds with special features and altenate endings. Today i purchased another for my collection: I Am Legend with an alternate ending which i was really excited for.
For those who have not seen the film I’ll warn you that this could spoil it. so stop reading this, go watch the theatrical version (the one worth watching) and then finish this blog.
The film deals with a lot of interesting themes concerning spirituality. The easiest ones to draw from are the virtue of sacrifice and the life giving properties of blood. The end of the theatrical version clearly displays our affinity or natural attraction to a hero willing to pay the ultimate price for his cause. The ending (theatrical) along with Will Smith’s performance was gripping and stuck with me for days.
I had been really excited to watch the alternate ending for some reason. The alternate version takes a wierd turn. Where the theatrical version keeps devoted to the concept of saving the human race, the alternate version toys with the idea that the infected humans are evolving and that the disaster which killed off the human race was merely a turn in evolution. My personal interpretation of the alternate version is that it was steeped in humanistic ideaology. That mankind’s instict for survival is so powerful that man can evolve all over again if need be.
It is obvious why this was the alternate version. Although it was an interesting idea, it sucked and it really doesn’t appeal to audiences. For some reason survival is not worth it without sacrifice. Life is worth sacrifice. Mankind is worth the sacrifice. It reminds us why life is worth living.
Not to over-spiritualize the movie but the reason i enjoyed it so much is because of the obvious parrallels with the greatest story ever told. It reminds me that mankind is worth saving and that we have a part in this grand redemptive narrative. The Gospel is universally appealing; just some people don’t know it yet.
light up the darkness
So I happen to work at a hardware store. So I happen to know a bit about tools. So I thought I could use this blog as an avenue to educate others about some “tools” that are particularly useless in a segment I hope to grow into a weekly post.
Billy Ray Cyrus
BRC (as I like to refer to him) had a pretty good run at being a star. He had an explosive single and a rockin mullet. Actually his being a tool has nothing to do with him ever having a mullet. I definately rocked a mullet or two in my life. I don’t even care that he had that show on PAX for a while.
The reason that I have classifeid BRC as a tool is because he has gotten to a point in his career where he has nothing left but to shamelessly ride the coatails of his daughter Miley.
I think its great that he is present in her career but i have serious issues with his getting a record deal with Disney to sing loves songs about his daughter, or co-hosting the CMT music awards with Miley. I just don’t think that anyone takes him seriously.
I guess there is no stopping the mighty media giant disney from exploiting young actors but dude… Billy… you are a tool.
I think that one of the greatest things about living a life with Christ doubles as one of the most difficult. Empathy forces us to look beyond ourselves and act on behalf of others who are unable to act for themselves.
Humans are a funny species. We are capable of such incredible destruction yet we are also capable of creating intoxicating beauty. We find ourselves living in this world with this not so delicate dynamic of chaos amongst the beauty and at the center of it all are a lot of hurting people.
The challenge of Jesus is to love others as ourselves. I think its really interesting that in order to help us understand how we are to love, Jesus draws an analogy we can all understand. We are all truly and deeply in love with ourselves. Loving ourselves numbs us to having empathy for others. We can’t feel others hurt if alls we ever feel are ourselves. I think this is one of the reasons for the destruction we witness in our world.
Growing in relationship with Christ means its going to be easy to get hurt. I cry a lot. It hurts to feel. It hurts to know that there is more that i can do. Yet I am inspired by the hope i have in Christ. I am inspired by the beauty of love and redemption. I believe that empathy, feeling what others feel, is an attribute of God in us. I believe that it is divine intervention in the most passive yet effective way. Instead of God stepping in and righting the wrongs He challenges us to be His hands and feet to spread healing to others.
Lord help me to feel what others feel, even when it hurts. Don’t ever let me grow numb and please give me the courage to take action when you want me.
I have a unique passion for zombie movies. Or perhaps more for the concept of zombie movies.
This passion is not linked to a sick appetite for destruction (to barrow the title from the 1987 Guns N’ Roses almbum)I don’t care for the graphic violence or gratuitious nudity that some Zombie Movies (hereafter to be referred to as ZM) contain.
The coolest thing about ZM is how the heroes find themselves in an apocolyptic setting where man is feasting on man, and he or she will have to figure out a way to survive. However, most of the time in a zombie movie survival merely means escape.
As I am watching a ZM I of course think about what i would do if i found myself amidst dozens of the living dead. I think that i would most likely do what the typical ZM movie hero would do… grab a blunt object and fight for my survival while going around trying to help the others who have not yet been infected.
Naturally thats what anyone would do, but allow me to pose the same question that the top theologians of the mid to late 90’s posed to children in Sunday School and VBS all over the world.
What Would Jesus Do?
Well since Jesus is Jesus, and Jesus can do miracles, Jesus would heal the zombies and breathe life back into the undead. However, Jesus would most likely take the oportunity to teach a lesson to his disciples, or in this case maybe the hero.
We do live in a a Zombie Movie. Everyday we encounter the undead, we work with them, we pass them on the street, serve them food or drink. (I happen to serve them wrenches, extension chords and other hardware) These Zombies often appear to be just fine, but every once in a while, if you’re looking, you can see the death on their faces. You can see their gaping wounds waiting to be healed.
I think that it is too often that we Christians decide the best way to deal with the zombies is by ignoring them. Even more often than that we play out our role as zombie killers and attack the them. And it is altogether too rare that we point them to the the One who healed us from our undead state.
Another problem with Christ followers is that we often forget what Christ has done for us and we appear to be just as dead as zombies. How can we so quickly forget the love that Christ has shown us?
Although the question of WWJD is an unfair question because it fails to recognize that we are not Jesus, the best thing that we can do is point them to Jesus the healer and forgiver.
Now imagine this, a zombie movie where the hero didn’t have to fight for his survival, going around and killing, but out of love and compassion (that Christ first gave us) we show the zombies the way to real life. What if we showed them Christ? What if we loved them?
Its a funny thing marriage is. I’ve been in the club since August of 06 and its the best thing that has ever happened to me. From my previous blog you may have learned that childhood was not so kind to this man. My father dying was just the beginning of many trials that made me into what i am today.
However, I am digressing from the point i mean to make. Allow me to clarify. All of the truobles i encountered, all of the heartache i endured were all worth it to know the comfort of my wonderful wife Veronica.
We met in college at a point in my life that i figured that i wouldn’t be married for quite a while. At the time i had no intentions of getting serious with a woman. Except there was this one i couldn’t shake off. Deciding to date her felt like deciding to get married, and in a way it was. I told Veronica I was playing for keeps and I meant it.
An astonishing 5 months later we were engaged and 3 months after that we were married. Dating her was one of the most healing times in my life. She calmed and soothed many wounds that were still infected from my past. (sorry if the imagery was a bit gross… but its the best way for me to describe what i went through)
At some point in my relationship with God and wrestling with him about why things went the way they did, he assured me that it would be made up to me. Not that I believe God owed me anything, I am thankful just to have his grace in my life. But because he wanted to bless me (which is another unsolved mystery) Veronica helps me with life. She makes me laugh in ways that no one else can. She gives me hope in ways that no one else can. And she loves me in ways that no one else can. She has seen the good, the bad and the ugly in me yet still she loves me.
I know that our future together is Gods way of restoring to me what was lost while i grew up. She asked me to write a blog about her, however I am sorry that she had to ask me to do so.
Veronica I love you in ways that you will never know. I want to be the best man i can for you because you deserve more than i can give you. Thank you for loving me. I am so happy to be on this journey of life with you, and i can’t wait to see what is next for us.
Today marks the 16th year since the day that shattered my life into two distinct pieces. My life with a father and my life without a father.
Harold Joseph Pearson died on March 12, 1992 at the age of 37. He battled cancer for four years before the disease cast its final blow upon him. He left behind a wife, a daughter and a son.
I was seven when he died and I don’t have many memories left of him. A few will surface here and there. Some good and some very painful.
I remember his patience, his reserved nature, and his passion for life. He was a man of few words yet captured the respect of many. I wish I could have known him more.
I only got play catch with him once. Although the memory is faint, i recall it being one of the most exilerating moments of my young life. It was an invtitation into the tribe of manhood and a gift that i treasure to this day. He knew his time left with me was nearing an end and he intentionally did it so that i could have that memory today.
I weep as I write this. I weep for the memories i never had the chance to have with him. Someone else had to teach me to drive. I had to teach myself to shave. And i had to learn a lot of things on my own.
So the tears that fall today are in honor of the man who gave me life. He taught me what he could while we were on this earth together. The tears that fall for him today are in anticipation for the day we get to meet again.
I love you dad. and i can hardly wait to see you again.
well then… the world wide web has one more blog.
I figure that i am off to a good start. from what i can tell in order to have a decent weblog alls you need to have is a witty title (check) a passion of some sort (check) and the time and commitment to writing about said passion (we’ll see aboout that one)
However, I have noticed that a lot of blogs seems to be an avenue for some to rant on about whatever chip they currently have on their shoulder. I would be foolish to say that this blog would be any different. In fact i have a big chip on my shoulder. I want to expose the world to the beauty that has engulfed my life; that is the Gospel of Christ, the God who Loves us, and the Spirit that Leads us. Yet this world seems to think that it can get by on its own, and by the looks of things its not doing well.
My life is a relentless pursuit of this beauty and this blog is an attempt to share it.
Please enjoy.
Random Rhetoric 