There was a dog in the yard, yes two dogs. Foreign dogs. Scout, the local, was running back and forth, whining and barking. She was very anxious. This average sized dog, Scout, likes to drag large portions of dead deer into the yard. It all started when one night I was trying to get her to come inside. It was dark. I went out calling her and she would not come. I paused to listen. Crunch, crunch, she was chewing on the deer. I knew it was the deer because I had seen her a day previously chewing on the deer. I was disgusted.

Here is a quote I agree with. It is from my new favorite author, Sarah Sumner. It is from the book Just How Married Do You Want To Be, with co-author, her husband Jim Sumner.

  "The command to cleave is given by God to husbands. Some Christian men seem tempted to cleave      instead to a worldly sense of manhood. A husband may distance himself from his wife for fear that his wife's    femininity will somehow make him less of a man."

I seem to remember guys rejecting things they deemed feminine. They also held that strength was manly. The things that were considered feminine were insignificant things, such as wearing pink or the way one walked. These guys would used the phrase "real man". It seems that any reasonable notion of a "real man" would be a secure, stable, consistent manhood that is not changed by things like colors. It seems that if these people had true strength they would not have to defend their manhood, especially in a manner that gives the impression that they are insecure of their masculinity. 

In my younger years I was under the same impression that I had to reject anything that smelled of girls. I even thought, at one point, that drinking out of a straw was girly. It is strange. 

 

I am going to attempt to keep my brain functional. I am going to practice my memory. Hot bod and no brain doesn't go far enough for me

bye for now love b

This is a light hearted post

It has become the trend for some people I know to speak in incomplete sentences. My own wife did it today when she said, "Not a fan of the freaking". I want to strongly exhort people to use a subject, verb, object sentence structure. Please for the sake of understanding, at least out of respect of our linguistic ancestors, oh whatever it is a free country. Just paitient with me, not understanding.

Oh proportion!
Proportion is so important. It is so fundamental. For example why are puppies cute, but small dogs (picture a hairless chihuahua) are not cute? Because puppies have a different proportion (maybe also because they are clumsy). Also I just learned how proportion is so important with balance.

high wire

Hi,

I was reading about tightrope walking. I learned that some high wire walkers use a bent pole with weights on the end. If there is enough weight and the weights are below the wire, then the walker doesn't need any more balance than if he or she were hanging from the wire. I knew this intuitionally, because I have seen a wheel on a cable with a weight below it and knew that there wasn't a risk of the wheel "loosing its balance". I didn't realize it in the case of the high wire walker. It is so interesting to me that a person can feel something without understanding it. It is intriguing, one's intuition.

Another interesting thing is how a high wire walker might carry a straight pole. What is interesting is that the straight pole lowers the walker's center of gravity. I assume it does this by shortening the walker. The walker isn't shorter necessarily, but is proportionally because the pole makes the walker wider. Gravity doesn't care about height, but does care about proportion? Wow, I guess that is right. That is so awesome. I always knew that proportion was important from the artistic standpoint, but I didn't know this.

Thank you for reading this whoever you are!

love braden 

Guest Blog

Hi everyone--(Leslie, Jeremy...I don't know who else reads this!)

This is B.L.W. (Braden's Lovely Wife) and I have invaded his blog to post some of my recent thoughts.

So, I am in seminary and I'm studying Greek and Hebrew (at the same time) and the other day I was thinking of how interesting it is studying new languages.  While many of the main concepts are the same, other details are different.  For example, Greek is practically defined/recognized by cases (nominative, genitive, vocative, etc) whereas Hebrew doesn't have them (per se).  

The thing I was thinking about recently involves the definite article "the."  In Hebrew, this is shown with a specific prefixed letter.  Our professor has taught us that if the prefix is there you can translate it "the" but if it is not there you can't and it has to be translated "a."  This has pretty serious implications sometimes when translating from Scripture.  (Is it "a god" or "the god"..etc etc)

However, in Greek, I have been given the impression that, in translation, whatever fits is how you translate it.  There are some obvious cases, but otherwise it is up for interpretation.  There isn't really anything specific to show it one way or the other like there is in Hebrew.  

I am wondering how much of this is just because I'm at an "elementary" level of learning grammar.  Obviously, if I were a scholar translator and I was actually translating Scripture into something being published then I would have to know more details.  But it was an interesting comparison for me to make.

Okay, thats all for now I think.  It was a little difficult explaining my thoughts without being able to type the actual Greek/Hebrew letters/words....but hopefully my attempts are successful.

Until the next time I hack in here.

Peach out.

two two two in a row

I was talking with some folks about documentary films. My friend was talking about this tight rope walker. The topic of passion came up. This tight rope walker was so full of passion, so tangible that could be cut with a knife. Then we talked about the Grizzly Man, a man who was extremely excited about bears. 

I felt like I hunger for something like the passion. I felt a hunger for greatness and the intensity of experience. 

I've thought, "how do experience something admirable like this?" 

It is an interesting thing how things look in a film verses what they are to really experience. For example I might see a film about biblical scholars who made amazing discoveries that lead to an unparalleled translation. Then I think, " Wow that is cool I should study Greek and Hebrew too." But then when I try to learn it doesn't seem cool.

The thing is I want to be on the cutting edge and making breakthroughs. Maybe the difference is that the people who make the breakthroughs don't do what they do with the purpose of making a breakthrough. Perhaps they merely love what they are good at and keep at it when they don't love it.

I'm not sure.

What is going on?

Just think about it. I am reading a book called Just How Married Do You Want To Be: Exploring oneness in marriage. It is very interesting.  

 When I hear some people talk (especially when I hear culture talk) about marriage I have such a strong negative emotional response. I tend to feel alone, fearful, anxious, angry. I have wondered if there was something wrong with my emotions, and there might be. But as I have been exploring the ideas in this book I have felt something more along the lines of hope, peace, excitement, belonging. Which makes me wonder if there is something legitimately causing my emotions, something that I should be having a problem with.

One interesting thing addressed in my readings is the notion of the husband being a head and the wife being a body, connected to each other, and the comparison of Christ being the head connected to the church body.

I had an idea about this metaphor. There are these friends that I have that I have fond feelings toward.  I just had this weird impression of, "I like them enough to make a formal commitment akin to marrying them."

Then I thought, "Wait a minute I am married with them to God. They are my brother and sister "wife" to God." I know, this is an odd notion of God the polygamist, who has every believer as his wife. The point is to ask the question, "What would it be like if I acted toward God like I act toward my wife, that is if I sought to be one with Him? Also, what would I act like if I treated believers as my fellow spouse or as Christ's wife? How kind am I to my friend's spouse? How much more kind should I be to Christ's wife?" 

a joke i think

why did the pasta go running to its mother? because it was so Alfredo