Current Read

If You Want to Walk on Water You've Got to Get Out of The Boat, John Ortberg

Our care group has been reading this together and, while I enjoy Ortberg, this is yet another instance where 'it's better together.' We share points that stood out to us for whatever reason, quotes and questions.

Several questions have come been posed in the book that I am pondering:
*What do I enjoy doing for its own sake?
*What do I avoid doing? Why?
*For what do I wish to be remembered?
*How might the offer of money or promotion sidetrack me from my true calling?
* What would my life look like if it turned out well?
*What is my deepest dream?
*How much passion do I experience in my daily life?
*What do I want my epitaph to say?
*How often do I take risks that require a power greater than my own?
*If I had to name the "one true thing" that I believe I was set on earth to do, what would it be?
*How clear is it to me?

I seem to be continually asking some form of these questions of myself and of those around me, not as a way to express dissatisfaction with my current state - at least not most the time - but as a way to continually keep focused on who I am, who I want to be and how the things I do align with that person.

Interestingly enough, sometimes it's in community that we find the answers to these questions. By observing the examples of those around us. By running into ideas and ideals that coincide or contradict who we are. By being challenged and pushed to try new things. By being supported. By having others, with a third party perspective, speak into your life and longings because of what they see.

Who are you becoming? What choices do you make daily to ensure that the person you're becoming is the person you want to become?

Hollywood out of step with American morals: poll

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A majority of Americans say Hollywood doesn't share their moral values, according to a poll commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League, a group that fights anti-Semitism.

Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said that religious values in America are "under attack," and 59% agreed that "the people who run the TV networks and the major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans."

The poll, titled "American Attitudes on Religion, Moral Values and Hollywood," was conducted by the Marttila Communications Group, which surveyed 1,000 adults nationwide. It was released Friday at the ADL's annual meeting in Los Angeles.

"These findings point to the challenges that we face in dealing with issues of religion in society," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director. "The belief that religion is under attack underlies the drive to incorporate more religion into American public life. Disturbingly, 43% of Americans believe there is an organized campaign by Hollywood and the national media to weaken the influence of religious values in this country."

Among the survey's findings:

-- 61% of respondents agree that "religious values are under attack in this country," while 36% disagree with that statement.

-- 43% said that Hollywood and the national media are waging an organized campaign to "weaken the influence of religious values in this country."

-- 63% disagree with the statement that "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," while only 22% agree with that point. When ADL conducted its first survey on anti-Semitic attitudes, in 1964, nearly half of the respondents believed that the television and film industries were run by Jews.

-- Nearly 40% support the notion that "dangerous ideas should be banned from public school libraries," and nearly the same number disagree with the statement that "censoring books is an old-fashioned idea."

-- Nearly half of those surveyed -- 49% -- believe that the United States is becoming "too tolerant in its acceptance of different ideas and lifestyles; 47% disagree with that statement.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

And that, my friends, is an article I stumbled on this morning. What do you think? If the pollsters polled you, where would you weigh in?

If you were a science teacher...

...you might get some of these exam answers from your students. Perhaps I just work with kids too much (is that possible!?) but I found them amusing!

Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.

Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.

Q: How can you delay milk turning sour? (brilliant, love this!)
A: Keep it in the cow.

Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature hates a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.

Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.

Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.

Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery

Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A: Premature death.

Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? ( e.g., abdomen)
A: The body is consisted into three parts -- the brainier, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain; the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels A, E, I, O, and U.

Q: What is the fibula?
A: A small lie.

Q: What does 'varicose' mean? (I do love this one...)
A: Nearby.

Q: Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarian Section.'
A: The Caesarian Section is a district in Rome

Q: What does the word 'benign' mean?'
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

"This world is to be my home, as much as it is not to be the place that sets the agenda for my life. It is the place that sustains me, but that also needs to be transformed by the grace of God. Thus, while participating in all of life, I need to draw aside to find a place of intimacy with the God who loves and sustains me. And from this reoccurring center-point I can be personally enriched so that I can continue to wash the feet of the world."

Charles Ringma in Dare to Journey With Henry Nouwen

Current Read

The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff

Post Halloween Chuckle

I didn't take this one but certainly enjoy it! The first time I saw these was on the front lawn of a house on a main street in north Calgary. When I stumbled on this picture, it made me chuckle again so I had to share.