tove lo.

I watched Tove Lo open for Coldplay. She's "big". She's "famous". She's a "successful artist".  She has four songs with over 250,000,000 plays on Spotify. She's got it. 

And yet, at the Coldplay concert, no one cared. Half the seats were empty for her set. Very few people were singing along. She might as well have been someone just getting their start because, most of the people were there to see Coldplay. 

Don't get too discouraged if no one is singing along and half the seats are empty. We can always get better, sure. But, you just might not be in front of your audience.

a free yearbook...

My daughter came home from school talking about an essay contest. She wasn't much into the essay topic and said, actually, that if she were to honestly write about it, well, she wouldn't win. 

"But," she said. "I can write something I don't believe. It'll be easy." 

"Wait," I responded. "What? Why would you do that?" 

"They are bribing me! I get a free year book! And they will read my essay in front of the school and say my name!" 

A Jr. High snapshot of the world: give me some fame and money and I'll tell you I believe what you want me to. 

be like kennedy

Have you ever noticed that whenever there has been a Supreme Court decision in the last 11 years or so... the same thing is generally said... something along the lines of...  

...we know how these four will go and we know how these four will go but what we don't know is what Justice Kennedy will do. So, the decision really comes down to him. He has become the swing vote. 

I want to be like that.

Be someone who can listen, can contemplate, and can make a decision based on the information presented with the least number of biases. So much so, that, unlike all of our peers whose decision will be obvious... mine might not be. Maybe yours won't be either? 

proof of change.

“There’s no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons. [Guns are] a ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will." 

Just spend some time thinking of who said that or what kind of person would say that. 

Here's who. 

Ronald Reagan. 1967 after two dozen Black Panthers walked into the California statehouse carrying rifles. Reagan was a governor. 

Don't worry folks. It all changes. Well, unless you hate change, then you should worry. 

7 minutes.

This footage from a 1939 pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden - with about 20,000 people in attendance - is worth watching. 

Keep in mind, Hitler was already in power when this occurred. Already building concentration camps. 

the three most important words...

If we can say these, we'll be okay. 

If we can't, I'm not sure. 

Ready?

I don't know. 

That's it. Once we can admit we don't know, the rest is gravy. 

23 years.

Today is my 23rd anniversary. 

I could write all my favorite things about my wife and our relationship here, but I'd prefer to tell her to her face. To watch her smile, to watch her laugh, to watch her lift her shoulders...

It's possible to lose those kinds of interactions in 2017. Don't give in.
Find some of your own today and savor the hell out of them. 

new old stuff.

It's pretty amazing, in this world of innovation and creativity how quickly something becomes cemented as the original. 

Players didn't stand en masse for the anthem in every game before 2009. 
The idea of Jesus being punished by God for sinners didn't exist before the 16th century. 
My son is going to a University that has existed longer in a world without America than with it. 
Republican and Democrat platforms from the 50's wouldn't be recognized today. 
Guns were strongly regulated in early America. 

Every idea you believe today was once a heresy of some kind or another. So, be careful latching on too strongly to any ideas. 

it's not just the news.

If it bleeds, it leads. 
Fear sells. 
No one talks about the plane that lands. 

The news doesn't exist to talk about the 1000 ordinarily beautiful things that happen every day but to talk about the 1 exceptional ugly that happens on a semi-regular basis. 

But, don't just blame the news. The 1000 ordinarily beautiful things aren't usually the things that we get together with family and friends and start talking about. Or think too much about. 

And that's the challenge. Create them. Talk about them. Focus on them. They are everywhere. 

s p a c e

Take some time to create some space today. 

It might be the most important thing you can do. 

I feel your pain.

Paul Young was recently at our church and he told us that he has received numerous emails that berate him for portraying Jesus as a Middle Eastern man in his book and movie. 

I have nothing to say. Well, I do.

I feel your pain Paul. I feel your pain. 

price.

I've been in a number of price conversations in a number of arenas including business, church, psychology and more. 

But you'll often hear this: we determine the value of something based on price. There is a pretty well known story about some turquoise that wasn't selling so the shop owner left a note for a worker to lower the price. The worker misunderstood and raised the price. The stuff sold out over the weekend. 

The $75 dollar bottle of wine must be better. 

Which brings us to the idea of free. 

A free hour of coffee, a band, and a speaker can't be that good. It's free. (It's also church.) 

But, more importantly, since we're obsessed with this concept of price determining value, what kind of religion would be centered around something free? You're right, none of them. Of course, there is a price and a cost and something must be paid! (Yes I include Christianity - it talks a good game but it doesn't mean it.) 

Because if there is no cost, well... then how much can it be worth? 

And maybe that is the true cost of enlightenment, spirituality, etc...

The cost of accepting that the best life can come from something that costs nothing.

But, I think that might be the greatest cost there is. 

at some point...

Everyone gives up the rights to something in order to make the world safer.

Which is interesting to think about... the right to anything anyone wants is pretty dangerous. 

porn is better.

I was recently talking to someone who had made the very poor decision to look at Twitter before going to bed. As a result, his blood pressure spiked, anger and vitriol flushed through his body and he couldn't get to sleep until 2 in the morning and had a restless sleep when he did. 

I jokingly said, "You should have looked at some porn instead." 

Half-jokingly.

"I would have slept better," he answered. 

It's not sex or nudity just like it's not having opinions or sharing them.

It's the gratuitous nature of it, it's the dehumanizing, it's the addictive tendencies, it's the abolition of risk and vulnerability, it's the cheapening of emotion... I'm not sure one is any better than the other. 

we're choosing this.

It's one of the most profound and important articles I've read in a long time. It's about minimalism in Poland, which is already interesting. 

You can read the whole article - and probably should - but here's the money quote: 

---

He began to answer, “When I was younger, I had an important mentor. He was a survivor of Auschwitz who would live almost his entire existence in an occupied Poland—first by the Germans and then by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.”

“This man once made an observation to me I have never forgotten. After a trip he had taken to Western Europe, he pulled me aside and said,

‘I have come to realize that materialism holds people captive in many the same ways Communism does. Communism, by force, seeks to destroy personal identity. Materialism does the same. But materialism destroys personal identity by choice.’

would you rather?

Would you rather hit a home run 2 out of 10 times and strike out the other 8 or would you rather hit a single 8 out of 10 times and strike out the other 2? 

You might be swinging too hard. 

the ego can't be alone.

Our ego can't live in a world where there aren't other people to compare it to. Think about that for a second. If you're alone on an island, you ego is going to have a much harder time corrupting you than it is helping you. 

The next time your ego is driving you crazy, just look for the person it's comparing you to and kindly ask your ego to stop paying attention to them and start paying attention to you again. 

two important things.

One. We should all read this. It's important to remember the humanity of victim. 

And then we should all read this: Between 2001 and 2015, more Americans were killed by homegrown right-wing extremists than by Islamist terrorists... It's important to remember the humanity of enemy. 

what to do...

[ t h e ] n o r t h [ e r n ] [ o f ] i r e l a n d

It is both a dignity and
a difficulty
to live between these
names,

perceiving politics
in the syntax of
the state.

And at the end of the day,
the reality is
that whether we
change
or whether we stay
the same

these questions will
remain.

Who are we
to be
with one
another?

and

How are we
to be
with one
another?

and

What to do
with all those memories
of all those funerals?

and

What about those present
whose past was blasted
far beyond their
future?

I wake.
You wake.
She wakes.
He wakes.
They wake.

We Wake
and take
this troubled beauty forward.

Tuama, Pádraig Ó. Sorry For Your Troubles Canterbury Press Norwich

we can't say these things anymore.

1) "Banning guns won't stop shootings." 

In actual reality, we can't possibly have a more ridiculous statement. 

Guns shoot. If we take away all the guns there will actually, guaranteed, be no more shootings. There's nothing more true or predictable.  Banning all guns would definitely stop all shootings. 

I get the sentiment. We can't remove all the guns or we shouldn't remove all the guns. That's fine. Just please say that instead. It's a much more productive conversation and might actually get us somewhere. 

2) "It's too soon to talk politics." 

In actual reality, politics are part of the reason there were police officers, first responders, hospitals, ambulances, roads for the ambulances to drive on, electricity in the hospitals, cars for the police officers to drive... we get it. 

Politics are also the reason a man could buy machine guns (plural) legally.  

I get the sentiment. People are hurting and we should not take advantage of a fragile emotional state to manipulate. Of course, there is never a right time to do that. So, let's just never take advantage of fragile emotional states to manipulate and never stop talking about practical ways that help us have less grief and more healing, even if they are political. 

Also it’s not too soon after Sandy Hook and Orlando to talk politics so let’s talk about those tragedies. 

3) "Thoughts and prayers to..." 

We can do all of those things, without announcing them. 

I get the sentiment. We are hurt. We don’t know what else to do. But action is always better than announcement and sometimes announcing distracts from action - as though it’s accomplished. On the flip side, action always leads to announcements that arrive naturally. Posting that you are starting your diet is way less effective than losing 50 pounds. 

So pray. Maybe meditate. Think. A lot. About guns and politics and humanity. Engage with people. Love. And call a Representative or two. Thank a police officer or fireman or woman or doctor or nurse that you know for doing a hard job. Research gun violence and restriction around the world. Don’t take someone’s word for it. 

This has to stop happening. And it can. It has stopped in countless countries around the world who stopped responding to preventable tragedies with thoughts and prayers and, instead, with purposeful and humble action. Because they cared enough.