Spring

A few days ago the weather was what I could consider, a pleasant. I got on my bike and started to ride. The cool humidity made the air tangible. The flowering trees offered delicious scents for me to sample. Peddling quickly, I rode without my hands. Gently, I stood up and carefully pinched the seat between my thighs. I stretched my arms out horizontally. I wondered what people would think if they saw this.

I was watching a young toddler. He is very tall for his age so I sometimes expect more dexterity from him than he is capable of. I picked a dandelion that had its seeds out, and blew them away. I picked one for him to try. He could blow but not with enough force. So he opened his mouth licked it then shoved it inside before I could do anything.

May

I am listening to a sermon by a pastor from at a church called the Village in the Dallas Texas area. I am literally listening right now. Okay, I turned it off to write better. He was saying that many people developed an understanding of Christianity that was based around the idea that if you act as a good Christian by wearing the right clothes, avoiding certain words and going to church then things would go good for you. Then, he explained that people with this notion would loose their job, get dumped, loose a loved one, or something and their idea was shattered. Then they would leave church, stop praying, and possibly begin hating God. The pastor then said how really our relationship with God is not a contract because we have nothing to offer God. Everything we have is his already. We can’t make him owe us a good life by our actions. Instead of contracts God gives us a covenant which is more of an interactive relationship.

I guess that another way to talk about this is that a covenant is, like friendship, a dynamic experience. It exists in times of variety such as pain, pleasure, distance, intimacy, and so on. A contract in comparison seems more fixed. It seems to be unconcerned with contextual changes.

Mmmm interesting...

To Be Sure

I was thinking about why so many societies have such a common aesthetic for dress and appearance. It seems that people would want to be accepted by the community, because in most times the individual needed the strength of the community for survival.

You know sometimes the title for these blogs mean something and other times they are just what came into my head.

It is the great equalizer. Do you ever sit down to start something, let say like a blog post, and here is comes the rumble? If you are anything like me you think, “Awe man, I just sat down. I don’t want to go sit down on that special chair. Can’t my body get in-tune with my mind.” But on the other end, I mean hand. On the other hand it is interesting to think that maybe the president of the united states is doing the same thing as me right now. Okay that is strange. Forget that part. It is interesting that no one is exempt, yet cultures like with everything else have different thoughts. I have heard that in Holland the toilets have a shelf that allows the user to “make sure everything is normal” before it gets washed away.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go.

My Name is Braden

My Name is Braden

Hi So, I was thinking about how it is interesting how people name the stars. They give them strange names. There are so many stars that have been named. It is kind of like adam naming animals.

My man hands are getting tired of typing. You know, some people who are older jump right in to the new technology that comes around and others don’t. I think it would be really something to live during the time, or in the cultures that didn’t have a swift progress of technology. It seems it unwittingly provides a potential wedge that could be placed, or viciously driven, between subsequent generations. I wonder what it would be like to hang out with the old people when what you were learning or had a grasp on, these old people had been doing for years. Of course, this would vary between individuals and cultures, but perhaps there would be a submissive respect from the younger to the older. Or might there be a haughty pride of youthful dexterity. I wa- wa- wa- wonder.

New Fresh Finally

I want to be excited about God and life-ishness. I say that “ishness” part because if I said "life" I feel like I would be making reference to like fifty things when what I mean is maybe only one or two things. These being something like the parts of existence that perpetuate good, beauty, health, positive living. Okay that was four things. I want to be excited because I know so strongly and truly that the Creator that Abraham believed in is so much greater than what I know, the rules I hold to. Culturally people are afraid of many things but few as great as death. And religious figures and gods of sorts promise many things but none that I know of promise freedom from this fear, not only freedom from the fear but from the thing itself. I want to be excited to the remarkable, daring level that things such as suffering and pain do not rend it asunder, to put it poetically.

So I have been watching a show called The Woodwright’s Shop. I like it. A man by the interesting name of Roy Underhill is the main person behind it. He has a great number of uncommon hand tools. He also has many unheard of devices that have been beautifully invented to aid in very specific wood working tasks. One such tool is meant to cut square or any other shaped holes in wood. I think that many of these items were created in the early days of manufacturing and rejected for something that did the work faster. I like these old remnants. I think that they are beautiful. Sometimes it seems that cultures reject beautiful things for cheap, convenient, quick, disposable things. That is not an anti-technology statement it is a pro-beauty in the everyday statement.

Well I sincerely appreciate anyone who is reading this. I means that after so many silent days you still checked back here to see if there was anything new. Thank you. I overwhelmingly appreciate one such reader, my wife. Thank You.

Loving with Your Pocketbook

I came here all ready to talk about the problems of loving through buying people things. As I have begun to think about it more I realize I must understand that the problems that I was about to lay out are from buying in excess rather than balance.
The specific case that started my musing is people who seem to only be able to show love by buying things. In this case, so many things are purchased that it is not longer enjoyable. What often comes with the excess of items, is a pressure to keep the items out of fear of offending the one who gave it. (As I side, I think that one of the ways that I would most want someone to show love for me is to seek the kingdom of heaven.)
What made me reassess my negative feelings was the thought that maybe people in general should show love to neighbors and strangers more through buying things.

Loving with Your Pocketbook

I came here all ready to talk about the problems of loving through buying people things. As I have begun to think about it more I realize I must understand that the problems that I was about to lay out are from buying in excess rather than balance.
The specific case that started my musing is people who seem to only be able to show love by buying things. In this case, so many things are purchased that it is not longer enjoyable. What often comes with the excess of items, is a pressure to keep the items out of fear of offending the one who gave it. (As I side, I think that one of the ways that I would most want someone to show love for me is to seek the kingdom of heaven.)
What made me reassess my negative feelings was the thought that maybe people in general should show love to neighbors and strangers more through buying things.