Brother Blue

This is from 6 years ago. One more reason to love creative people.

[via Matt Maher | If you have 15 extra seconds today, click here]

I hate the name podcast, but I love concept.
The ability to get great content, free, and listen to it when I want.
Some of my favorites:
This American Life: This is the radio program I wish I created. I think it is the best thing on radio, and it now a podcast. Brilliant story telling. I can cried more times listening to this show in the last year, then for ever other reason combined.
Studio 360: One of the editors of the long defunct “Spy” magazine hosts a weekly show about creativity. How we create. Why we create. Who is doing the creating.
The Onion: 52 seconds of laugh out loud funny 5 days a week.
CBC Radio 3: This is a weekly podcast (now downloaded by over 3 million people weekly) is all things Canadian music. You mean that doesn’t sound appealing? It is shockingly good. Over an hour of music you have never heard by people you have never heard of and it works. It is a reminder of how much really good music that is out there that isn’t being overly pushed by PR people. Sure there is some music I can do with out each week, but there are also gems. Music is now some of my favorites.
[today]

I often practice giving talks and presentations in my head.
Not only do I practice what I am going to say but I image everything else. I see the room and the audience. After I work through something once or twice I start to image things going wrong.
I image the microphone or overhead projection not working. I image hecklers, crying babies, and fire alarms being pulled. I do this to make myself more comfortable. When something goes wrong, I have often practiced it in my head. I am not caught off guard and have a better chance of handling whatever happens with a little more grace.
I also practice questions from the audience.
If I am able to predict what they are going to ask, I can do a better job of presenting by answering those questions before they even get asked. If someone finds something I am saying unclear (or if they disagree) they are more likely to check out from what I am saying. If I can diffuse confusion and/or concern, I have a better chance of having a receptive audience.
Recently I have been practicing talking to a group of parents. Not that I am going to be doing this anytime soon, but if something comes up I will be prepared.
For some reason, regardless of the topic I am presenting on, I keep getting questions along the lines of:
“What can I do to get my child to like church?”
or
“My child fights me every time we go to church. Suggestions?”
or
“My child says church is boring. What should I do?”
In my practice, my response has been along the lines of asking the questioner a series of questions.
Why should you child go to church?
Are you sharing with them why it is import to go, or are you just telling them?
Have you explained to them why you go to church?
Have you shared why your faith life is important to you?
Have you asked them to explain why they don’t want to go?
It all comes down to a question that is not new.
“How do we present a life of faith to young people in which they choose to take it on as their own?”
We can force them to show up, but we can’t force them to believe. We can’t force them to make it an active part of their life.
We might be able to control their time, but we can’t control their hearts.
I would assume our hope when we share the possibility of an active faith life is so that we are equipping them to live full rich lives, not simple be rule followers.
In order to do this, it seem to me, our job is to show them, in tangible ways, that there is benefit in struggling with these questions, so that when they make choices (something we can’t do for them) it is the most informed choice possible as they create themselves. (That is what we do when we make choices, we create who we are in this world.)
To do this, sometimes we feel we need to make a big show of it. They are consumers and faith life is this product we have to sell. If we don’t make it supper attractive they won’t buy/accept.
We often water down, over state or over sell. In doing this, it really does look like a sales pitch. Young people see it as a sale, and not an articulation of something that brings us life.
If reality, if this Truth we are sharing is really as grate as we believe it to be, then that should be self-evident. It shouldn’t need to be all shined up.
It seems to be a matter of sharing something we feel is real at a place that it makes sense to those we are sharing it with. We have to speak to a place in their life where this Truth shines light. It is not something we are trying to convince them of, but that they will have a fuller life with a different choice.
But in order to do this, me must understand where those we are sharing with are coming form and why they are making the choice they are making.
One-way this might play out (just an idea, not then end all be all approach)…
Let’s take chastity education for example. We have learned over the years that: telling folks not to do it because it wrong doesn’t work, telling they are going to hell doesn’t work, and trying to scare them (with disease and pregnancy) doesn’t work.
If we understand where they are coming from we see some of the reasons why do people (not just young people) get involved physically/sexually:
* It feels good (at least for a few minutes)
* They are trading the experience for affections. If I do this for him/her I will get attention and love. If they are with me, they must love me, and I must have worth.
* Peer pressure. Everyone else is doing it, and I won’t be accepted if I don’t. They will make fun of me for not having do it.
* Boredom
* To deaden some other feeling of pain. For these few minutes of pleasure I can forget about how crappy the rest of my life is.
No matter how eloquently (or entertainingly) you share the sacramental nature intercourse in the context of a loving marriage (in most cases) it is not going to speak to the reason someone might make the choices they are making.
I guess it seems that before we can present an alternative to someone else, we need to understand where they are coming from and why they are making the choices they are making.
It is only in context can we offer them an alternative.
It is not a matter of convincing someone of something. I don’t think it is possible to change someone mind. Only they can do that.
If there is Truth out there, it will ring true when it is heard. But just because it is spoken it doesn’t mean it is going to be heard.
Is it an easy thing to help someone to understand they that are intrinsically good and loved, that they don’t have to do something for others (or God) to earn value? No. But if this feeling of needing to be loved is their highest need at the moment, then they are going to make the choices they think that will bring them this feeling. Nothing else really matters.
For me, I guess all of this is a challenge. It is a challenge to move away from what I think I need to share, and a move to what is their most desperate need.
This is not just a matter of course for those we share with, but also for ourselves. It is only when I understand where I am filling the places that are empty in my soul and life with the unsubstantial, that I can seek the substantial.

Yesterday curling.
Today the world’s largest Easter Egg. [Not only is it the largest Ukrainian egg in the world with over 2206 pieces, it is also a weather vein.]
And lots of fun Canadians along the way (the students we are serving and those who taking care of us).
Tues./Wed. list. Please join.

For nearly a decade I have wanted to curl.
The first time I saw the sport on TV, I fell in love. We were at an event in Niagara, NY. I stepped into the hotel room for just a few minutes. 45 minutes later I was screaming and cheering at the TV as the Canadian (Brin I think it is called) national championships.
It has the strategy of chess, physics and physical competition all in one.
During the Winter Olympics in 2002 I watch three hours of it every night for ten nights. The joke was MSNBC really stood for “must show nothing but curling”. And I loved every minute of it.
Tonight my dream came true.
At local rec center in the greater Edmonton, AB area I curled.
It was everything I hoped it would be and more.
Our host for our time here (John), the husband of the family we are staying with (Billy) and myself met up with the coach of Archbishop Jordan HS curling team and three of his former players.
Step by step they led us three rookies through our first chance at this old Scottish sport.
Regular players were special shoes with plastic on the bottom so they slid. We improvised with a little duct tape. Only twice did I fall on the ice.
After spending about 45 min. getting our legs under us we played a two end game (kinda like playing two innings in baseball).
We (Billy, Adrian, and myself) won 3-0.
Pictures to come when I get home.
The coach said, “One more thing to cross off your to-do list.”
I replied, “No, that would imply that I am not going to do this again. I can’t wait for my next chance.”

We are in the throws of 5 days in Canada.
I have to say I love Canada.
When ever I tell people I am going to Canada and looking forward to it, people look at me like I am joking.
Most Americans think of Canada like an attic. You forget it is up there most of the time, and when you do get up there you think, “I forgot I had this.” (ht Kathleen Madigan)
Yes, there are some strange things to Canada (like the fact they use the maple leaf to dot the letter “i” or to use it as an apostrophe in almost every logo).
We spent much of the evening getting a lesson in Canadian geography and history. (I should really know more.)
Did you know that each province has a different relationship to the federal government? They each received different treatment because they joined the country at different times. Meaning each province has a different level of freedom.
It is all very odd. It would be like Californian being told exactly how it would spend its highway funds and Wyoming getting to do what ever they wanted with it.
Your homework: go learn something about your neighbor to the north. They are really nice people.
I would almost consider moving if it wasn’t for the fact I have found it easier to walk across a boarder in West Africa where I spoke none of the languages involved than it is for me to get into Canada.

Now fixed broken link: 9

92 ways we get in our own way.
A stunning list.
[via rebecca's pocket | more for today]

The US airline industry continues to be everyone punching bag.
Everyone has horror stories of this and that going wrong. And they are more then willing the drone on and on about it. (Jello Biafera talks about this need to talk about the bad in our life quite elegantly on the album “I blow minds for a living”).
No one ever tells good stories.
Yesterday I was scheduled to be on Northwest flight from Detroit to Baltimore at 529p.
At 1254p I was putting gas in a rental car.
At 132p I was sitting on a plane home.
In those 32 minutes I returned the rental car, caught the shuttle back to the airport, checked in, cleared security, bought a newspaper, drank two glasses of water, and boarded the plane.
I didn’t cut in line. I didn’t use any special line at security or checking in. I never moved faster than a walk.
Oh yeah, and I traveled 404 miles in 1hr and 4min safely.
[take time today]