"Iron My Shirt" and other things that aren't funny...

A man disrupts Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign event by standing up and holding a sign reading "Iron My Shirt" at Salem High School January 7, 2008 in New Hampshire. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

As seen at The Swamp blog - The Baltimore Sun.

Let me be clear.

I don't particularly care for Hillary. (You may spam me or nuke me now.) But I hate sexist comments. Racist comments. Rude comments. It's not the way of Christ.

I also don't like the fact that the people (reportedly two men) holding the bright yellow sign were:
(a) removed from the rally
(b) ignored, pointedly so, by the press
(c) not allowed their free speech moment

They were a security risk (?) and that was why they were removed.

I have long been skeptical of the political process. Everyone seems so made-for-TV, sound-bite-managed and scripted. If a politician dared to be wrinkled, tongue-tied or have a pimple, they are quickly and thoroughly trashed (if not by the mainstream media, at least by late night talk show hosts.) Remember how Romney has been mocked for having "perfect hair"?

What do I want? REAL interviews. REAL words and thoughts. I'm not holding out much hope.

You can bet I'll vote in my state's primary. AND in the general election. But I am getting very jaded in the process... and it is only January.

My spouse had a Tshirt that has not been available any more. It said:
"A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman thinks of the next generation."
James Freeman Clarke (1810 - 1888)

Me thinks we have WAYyyy too many politicians out there.

Deb

P.S. Just an FYI - I don't iron much for anyone.

I. Did. This.

No. Not dot the "i" - but spell it. Many times. Single, double and quad Script Ohio's.

ONCE a Buckeye, ALWAYS a Buckeye!

Deb

Blogging challenge

Alex at Besomami has issued a blogging challenge. She writes:
"Every time I finish a book this year, I am going to post about it. Anyone care to join me? Leave a comment on this post and we can keep up with each other, compare books, give suggestions, etc."

Soooo... OK. I'm in! How about you?

I've already finished three (OK, vacation helped!) and am ready to start my next book. Fun, philosophical, political, educational... I think anything except a comic book counts.

Here's my first three:
Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders by Earl Creps
It's a book for people who want to be honest about missional churches and their impact on (western) culture. There's a lot I liked in this book... I wish, however, he had dealt with the issue of women and ordination, because he was silent about that. And he didn't strike me as someone who was unwilling to let a woman preach.


Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God by Brennan Manning
I love how he writes. I love how he points me back, every single time, to Scripture and to God's redemptive power in Jesus. I appreciate the raw, real issues he grapples with and throws into my face as a result. Good stuff. Plus he quotes writers I love like Henri Nouwen. :) My journal is filled with quotes to re-read and consider. Good stuff.


Becky Garrison's book Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church is a more radical version of Creps' book (above.) She pulls no punches and lets the voices of leaders in the "emergent" church speak for themselves. I have page flags stuck all through this book because of some blunt quotes that made me blink... and then think. If you care about the church thriving past this generation, you need to read it. Even if you "hate" the whole idea of the "emergent" church, you need to think about the issues these voices raise. I'm just sayin...

OK, that's it for now. I will try and pick more interesting, non-theological books too. But hey. I'm in seminary. I am reading pages and pages every week. And it ain't the funny pages. But I will try to be more diverse.

:) Deb

FOOTBALL MANIA... GO BUCKS!!

(c) Rob Carr, AP Photo

GO BUCKEYES!!!

And in honor of the circus known as college football, here's some great football-related quotes...

"At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat. That costs money and we don't have any."
Erk Russell / Georgia Southern.

"Football is only a game. Spiritual things are eternal. Nevertheless, Beat Texas. "
Seen on a church sign in Arkansas prior to the 1969 game.

"After you retire, there's only one big event left....and I ain't ready for that."
Bobby Bowden / Florida State

"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it."
Lou Holtz / Arkansas

"When you win, nothing hurts."
Joe Namath / Alabama

"Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated."
Lou Holtz / Arkansas

"If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, "Roll, tide, roll!"
Bear Bryant / Alabama

"A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall."
Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you."
Woody Hayes / Ohio State

"I don't expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation."
Bob Devaney / Nebraska

"In Alabama , an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant."
Wally Butts / Georgia

"You can learn more character on the two yard line than anywhere else in life."
Paul Dietzel / LSU

"It's kind of hard to rally around a math class."
Bear Bryant / Alabama

When asked if Fayetteville was the end of the world, "No, but you can see it from here."
Lou Holtz / Arkansas

"I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game."
Bear Bryant / Alabama

"There's one sure way to stop us from scoring-give us the ball near the goal line."
Matty Bell / SMU

"Lads, you're not to miss practice unless your parents died or you died."
Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

"I never graduated from Iowa , but I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's."
Alex Karras / Iowa

"My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor."
Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee

"I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades."
Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

"Always remember..... Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David."
Shug Jordan / Auburn

"They cut us up like boarding house pie. And that's real small pieces."
Darrell Royal / Texas

"Show me a good and gracious loser, and I'll show you a failure."
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"They whipped us like a tied up goat."
Spike Dykes / Texas Tech

"I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn't recruit me and he said: "Well, Walt, we took a look at you and you weren't any good."
Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State

"Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel."
Bobby Bowden / Florida State

"Football is not a contact sport-it is a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport."
Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his postgame message to his team: "All those who need showers, take them."
John McKay / USC

"If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education."
Murray Warmath / Minnesota

"The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb."
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"Oh, we played about like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon."
Spike Dykes / Texas Tech

"It isn't necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it."
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"We live one day at a time and scratch where it itches."
Darrell Royal / Texas

"We didn't tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking."
John McKay / USC

"Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad."
Woody Hayes, The Ohio State University

"I've found that prayers work best when you have big players."
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football."
John Heisman

What I said in 2007

Hat tip to Seeking Authentic Voice for this idea... who writes: "Several blogs have posted the first sentences of the first post for each month of 2007."

To save you from doing all the clicking and scrolling, if there's a sentence that captures your fancy, just click on the month.

January
"We're the new "ears" in town..."

February
Sometimes, you just don't give a rip...

March
Sure.

April
Just a few days... from Palms and Hosannas to loneliness and pain.

May
I may worry for naught.

June
OK - I confess - the first thing that came to mind was Paul Simon's song Kodachrome!


July
NOoooo.... not THAT one!

August
Abbey of the Arts had a poetry invitation on her blog.

September
GO BUCKS!

October
Oh my.

November
Yes.

December
WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!


This was a fun review of a pretty amazing year.

Easy? Uh. NOPE. Impossible? It seemed that way, but I made it through, with a lot of God's grace and many good friends and family (blogging and not.)

Thanks...

Deb

Putting away Christmas

I hate doing it. For me, it's one of the more depressing chores of the year... putting away Christmas.

The brightness of the tree lights in the house and the ones on the bushes out front kind of help me get through the gloomy weeks of the start of the winter. It's a long time until spring. Or at least it seems that way to me.

But I looked at the calendar, reminding me that my classes start tomorrow and realized that if I didn't get things stowed THIS weekend, it would be many weeks before it happened with as much ease. And this year, I wanted to take time as I put things away to sort and think about what I wanted to keep, and what I was willing to send along its way to a donation center. I don't donate junk - that gets thrown away. Things that are nice, but either not my style or my preference... those are leaving. This week!

It took all of my free time this weekend. I didn't really mind too much. It's not a chore that people around here stand in line and say, "oh BOY! Let's take down the Christmas decorations!" It seems to be a "Mom" chore. Yes, I did conscript some help to haul boxes, and to take ornaments off of the tree, but most of the job was mine alone. So I had a chance to think... to pray... and while it did make me a little blue, it was also a good thing to do by myself.

Lest you think I have color coordinated boxes and bins... with everything in perfect rows and line up in segmented divider trays... I don't. I have made progress and every box is labeled on the side AND the top. I did gradually move us out of cardboard boxes to plastic storage bins. (There was just something about putting the Baby Jesus away for the year in a liquor box that seemed a little too bizarre. I mean, I know WWJD also means "Who Wants Jack Daniels?" but...)

Ah well...

The semester starts tomorrow. Part 2 of my internship begins this week. I'm starting a water aerobics class tomorrow (where IS my bathing suit??) and the list of "what must get done" this week is very long... But that's tomorrow's list.

For now... it's time to rest. And be thankful.

At Christmas I no more desire a rose,
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
But like of each thing that in season grows.
~ William Shakespeare

Love's Labour Lost

So to all... a good night!

Deb

Because all the Cool Kids are doing it...

The Recipe For Deb

3 parts Silliness 2 parts Devilry 1 part Warmth Splash of Nonconformity Finish off with a squeeze of lime juice

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

RevGalBlogPals: Friday Five on Resolutions

I read the RevGals Friday Five this week and my age started showing. Don't know why, but the Beatles song, "You Say You Want a Revolution" came thundering through my head. One little letter...
Revolution...
Resolution...

hmmmm.....

I suppose seriously taking RESOLUTIONS seriously would cause a REVOLUTION in my life. So I have started this post over. (And, if I have now stuck a song in your head, my apologies. Maybe I can get it out of MINE now!)

===============

Sally from RevGalBlogPals writes:

Well it had to be didn't it? Love them or hate them I bet you've been asked about New Year resolutions. So with no more fuss here is this weeks Friday Five:

1. Do you make New Year resolutions?
No, not really. Maybe it's being on this continuous self-improvement or spiritual formation process called "seminary"...

2. Is this something you take seriously, or is it a bit of fun? Oh most definitely un-serious. That is, to write them down and all that.

3. Share one goal for 2008. To go skydiving, lose 20 pounds, finally nail that triple axel and bring about world peace. OK, seriously? To keep faith, family, friends, ministry and studies in the right order.

4. Money is no barrier, share one wild/ impossible dream for 2008. Take my husband and kids to the German Alps.

5. Someone wants to publish a story of your year in 2008, what will the title of that book be? My first thought was a horror story: "The Year That Ate Her Brain" but that seems a wee bit dramatic! (Can you tell I have been looking at next semester's syllabi and panicking a bit?) But, given my serious goal listed above, "Laughing and Loving Life with God." Yeah. That works.

You say you want a RESOLUTION? May all of yours be real ones...

Deb

Calvin is staying at our house...

Meet Calvin the Python. He's a "ball" python, often called a "bald" python. He's not mine. He just lives with me.

So far, he has not barked, puked, scratched, mewed or chewed anything he shouldn't. He's a model citizen.

The feline occupants (Tiria and Polgara are undecided. The rest of us are OK with it, with the except of the Harpist... who is deliriously happy. SHE wins the honors for feeding it, cleaning the cage, etc.)

As the song goes... "...the things we do for love..."

Deb

The mothership has landed...

Look out! The mothership has landed!

One of the things I asked for (and received) this Christmas was a refill of the planner pages for my "brain". I have a Palm Zire that is dying (sadly) and doesn't want to sync. I had three calendars going - my desk, the kitchen and my laptop. Depending on where I was, appointments and reminders were written in one calendar, sometimes two, but never all three. The last few weeks of the fall semester, things got VERY messy. I dropped the ball more than I hit it.

Beloved and I are going to be looking for new PDA/cell phone combos so that electronically, at least, we can be synced. But I needed SOMETHING that was easy to update until then to manage "life" and all of its many tangles. Something that I could quickly copy or check for all of life's events because this semester is going to be crazy!

sooo.... off to the races. Planner in hand...

Deb