Of 370 members of First Presbyterian Church of Longview, 282 voted in favor of leaving the PC(USA) while 84 voted against leaving and six voted to be with whatever side kept the church property.

The emphasis in that quote is mine, not the Christian Post’s. So sad on so many levels, though…

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Let us go forth awhile and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our close rooms. The game of Ball is glorious. – Walt Whitman

America’s game: has the snap, go, fling, of the American atmosphere – belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our constitutions, laws: is just as important in the sum total of our historic life. – Walt Whitman

 As best I can find, Walt Whitman – one of the greatest American poets ever – never wrote anything about football, or basketball, or hockey, or auto racing. And to me, that says something.

What about you?

Which is why I was really surprised to learn that one of the Bee Gees’ first huge hits way back in 1968 was the ballad I Started a Joke. I only knew the song from the movie Zoolander, where it was covered by the Wallflowers. I literally went an entire decade thinking it was a Wallflowers original, until I found this video. It was kind of a watershed moment for me, as it really opened my eyes to the length and depth of the Bee Gees’ career, and it very quickly became a favorite for me.

So here’s to Robin Gibb. Enjoy!

What’s your favorite lesser-known song from an artist?

Dubya doesn’t understand, either…

… you walk into a coffee shop to have a meeting with two other people, look around at the five larger tables scattered around the coffee shop where you could have your meeting, settle on the table right next to the only other customer in the coffee shop (who is reading a book), then proceed to have your meeting at full volume.

What are some things about people that just don’t make any sense to you?

Here’s my cannarf review of The Avengers. I’m going to do my best not to spoil anything for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, but no promises.

The Good:

Where do I even start with the good…? The casting was great. The script was great. The pacing was great. The action was great. The character development was great (I think I’m really going to like Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk). The set up for the sequel was great as well. In particular, I loved that The Avengers was able to find that just-right mix between carrying a sense of weight and imperative without taking itself too seriously. (Seriously, though, the laughs in this movie are incredible.)

Maybe the best thing about The Avengers, though, is the way that all of the heroes have a fully-developed personality. Even Thor, who isn’t actually a human, feels like a real person. Every character has their own flaws and strengths, biases and convictions, spotted pasts and motivations. The real story of The Avengers is the story of these amazing individuals recognizing the need to fight for something bigger than themselves, to band together as one to become stronger than they could otherwise. It’s truly a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.

The Bad:

Okay. For real. I’m not a professional movie critic, but I really didn’t think there was anything to complain about with The Avengers. There aren’t any parts that feel draggy or boring, there wasn’t anything that was totally incomprehensible, and there wasn’t anything that was simply unbelievable (after the customary suspension of disbelief for movies, of course).

The Bottom Line:

Joss Whedon (the writer/director/producer) is the man. I expected The Avengers to be a great super hero movie; instead it’s just a great movie, period. I expected to love it; I loved it even more than I thought I would. I expected The Avengers to be a big, dumb, fun summer action movie; instead I found it to be a big, smart, intelligent, funny, surprisingly deep, fun summer action movie. Those added dimensions were enough to make me give The Avengers +7 cannarfs.

Have you seen The Avengers? What did you think?

“Baseball provides escape. Furthermore, there is no other place in our society that I know of in which the perimeter of play and the rules are clearly defined and known to everyone – in which justice is absolutely equal and sure. Three strikes, you’re out. I don’t care if you hire Edward Bennett Williams to defend you; three strikes, you’re still out. Baseball is an island of stability in an unstable world.” – Bill Veeck

“You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You’ve got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all.” – Earl Weaver

Amen, and amen.

Listen, I love football. I’m not so into basketball, hockey, or soccer… But in all four of those sports, you almost inevitably see the end of a game or match come down to one team with the lead trying to slow the game down and run out the clock. They’re not really trying to win the game anymore; they’re basically just playing keep-away.

You can’t play keep-away in baseball, and that’s one more reason I love it.

Peace.

I’ll write more about GME this week or next, but for today I just wanted to share the photos I was able to get of Penny’s arrival at home yesterday.

Penny remembered the kitchen, and was excited to be home!

Then she remembered her favorite sock-hiding place, and went to check on her hoard.

She was also very excited about going outside with Michelle.

Then she spent the rest of the evening like this. She doesn’t have much stamina yet…

So that’s the good news – Penny remembered our house and our cats, and genuinely seemed happy to be home. The bad news – she didn’t keep down her dinner, which is not good.

But all in all, yesterday was fantastic. Penny has her personality back, albeit with limited energy to be crazy, and we finally have her back. We’d appreciate continued prayer support for Penny and for us. Lord willing, we’ll get our little girl healthy again!

Peace.

Easter - You probably didn’t miss Easter. In fact, I’d wager that most of you who read this blog are committed church attenders and probably looked forward to Easter. And even if you’re not a committed church attender, statistics bear out the fact that a large percentage of people who don’t normally go to church will do so on Easter. So either way, I hope it was a great experience for you, and I hope you have been growing closer to God since.

Since Easter, it’s been a lot of grindstone type stuff. I haven’t goofed off as much as I’d like to, though to be fair I’d probably like to goof off more than is good for anyone. I’m like that sometimes. The new ministry/church has been going well. We’re plugging away at this whole Family Ministry concept, refining it, implementing it, rethinking it, doing it, redoing it… I really like the direction we’re headed, and I think it’s going to bear lots of huge fruit moving forward. So all in all things have been normal-to-quite-normal.

Then last week happened. Did you know that dogs can get auto-immune diseases that attack their brain stems? Because we sure didn’t until last Thursday. Our little dog Penny ended up in the pet hospital last Tuesday because she wasn’t eating, was throwing up whatever she did eat, and was generally lethargic and not herself. As symptoms worsened and an exploratory surgery revealed no blockages in her GI system, the diagnosis came down to something Michelle and I had never heard of – Granulomatous Meningoencephalitis (GME).

The good news is that Penny is responding well to treatment. The bad news is that GME is an early death sentence anyways; even with treatment we’re looking at anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of years. I’ll be writing more about this whole ordeal in the coming weeks, I’m sure…

So last week was just about the craziest mix of weird highs and lows that I can remember. Good thing tomorrow will be largely relational time as we have an office-full (literally!) of IKEA stuff to put together.

How has your weekend/week/month been?

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“…it’s beautiful – the way the field fans out, the choreography of the sport, the pace and rhythm of it, the fact that that pace and rhythm allows for conversation and reflection and opinion and comparison…” – Bob Costas

I agree wholeheartedly with Bob Costas. I think one of the main things that sets baseball apart from every other sport except golf is the sheer beauty of it.

There is no man-made structure in existence that is more beautiful than a well-kept baseball field.

There is no motion in sports more beautiful than a great batter’s swing.

There is no choreography of movement in sports that even comes close to a well-turned double play.

There is no sound in sports that is more exciting or fills its hearers simultaneously with great hope or crushing despair than the crack of the bat hitting the ball.

Put all these beautiful things together, and you end up with a game beyond comparison, at least in my opinion.

Thoughts?

Here’s something else that’s fun to watch: a group of young golfers having fun and embarrassing themselves in order to raise a little money for charity. And oh yeah, there’s your 2012 Masters champion in there…