Trust! (and that is said with no hint of irony or sarcasm. I love doing middle school work.)
Real conversation had with a grade 7 student on Saturday moments after performing while selling merchendise..
7g: Are you that Gene guy from the stage?
me: No. I am his more hansom stunt double. Gene is back stage eating.
7g: Will you tell him he did a really good job.
Consider him told.
Kemi, Dan, and I were standing out side a store last night on Granville St. in Vancouver.
This is the conversation we had with a random guy (RG).
RG: Would you like to see me climb a pole or tree?
Me: I think we are okay. Thanks for the offer.
RG: Actually, I am trying to get some change for food.
Kemi: You are looking for change? Let me see what I have?
[We give him about $5 Canadian and $2 American]
RG: Thanks!
Kemi: Now don’t go climbing anything.
RG: I don’t know if I can promise that. (Smiled and walked off)
By far the best blog post on this insanity:
[via Jen is Famous]
I have add some really great music to my MP3 player in the last few weeks. Here is the official play-list for the weekend.
Galvanize – The Chemical Brothers – Yes, this is the song from the Budwwiser Select commercials. No, that does not take away from the fact it is a great song.
Remind Me (radio edit) – Röyksopp – I never would have found this song without the Gieco commercial (so selling out isn’t all bad)
Growing Upside Down – The Ditty Bops – Song inspired by the fact that one of Bops has artifical grass and plastic flowers on the ceiling of her bathroom, forcing her to look at the world in a new way
Angel with and Attitude – The Ditty Bops – Also, on their new album, but if you can find a live version, even better.
He Brings Out the Whiskey in Me – Amy Millan – Canadian rock goddess gets back to her country roots.
Giv’r – Peaches – Song about the Canadian slang “giv’r” (an encouragement to give your all. “Stop being so lame, Giv’r!”). It is listed in the iTunes store as “Get It” (and to confuse the matter more, there is a song called Giv’r in the store).
I’m Shipping up to Boston – Dropkick Murphys – You have to love a song about losing your pegleg.
Smooth Criminal – Alien Ant Farm – Sure this cover is 5 years old, but it is great!
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) – Nancy Sinatra – This will haunt you.
Life in towns that have military bases are different than regular small towns.
Local news effects them in a different way.
They are also joined more intimately to other locals in a unique way.
Petawawa, ON is one of those towns. It has the second largest military base in Canada. (Yes, Canada has an Army, Navy, and Air Force.)
Right now the news from half way around the world is local news.
Many of the young men and women who call it home are in Afghanistan, with there families left behind. Hoping and praying.
Every Friday, everyone in town wears some red, in solidarity and memory.
In a very small way last night we touched this.
After our show a young woman walked up to, asked for an autograph.
She said, “Thanks for making me laugh. It has been a long time. Please pray for my husband. He won’t be home until May.”
Today’s list includes Greg, all those in Petawawa, and a those left behind in the loss of a friend.
Petawawa. That is just a fun name to say.
We are once again the great white north. Few odds and ends for the trip.
HOST
We are being hosted by a very sweet priest. Has taken his young people to youth conferences in the states 17 years (not sent them, but went with them). Is constantly using resources from all over the world to better serve is parish. Heart of gold.
LANGUAGE
The school we were at this morning has a “pastoral animator”, what we would call a campus minister in the states. Not sure if I like their title more our less than ours, but it is amazing how much we can frame or reframe a job or task just by the words we use to describe it.
CHILDREN
This afternoon was spent with the K-7 at Our Lady of Sorrows. Elementary would not be my first choice of venue. There is no way it could fulfill me for my living. But, from time to time it can be a lot of fun.
Children laugh different than adolescents and adults. It is not as much a “Ha Ha Ha” laugh, but instead it is just crashing waves of energy.
I also rediscovered (for I knew this before) it is very easy to get into a face making contest with a kindergartener with out saying a word. You just make the first face at them, and it is game on.
Value is a completely subjective. The value of something comes from the usefulness or story we place on something. This has nothing to do with how others will value it.
For example, to you (more than likely) this video has no value.
It is just the promo of some organization that plays horns, marches around, and appears to have been doing it for a long time.
For three or four seconds, there is a clear shot of my mom (and her smile), as a teenage.
To me, it’s gold.
There was once a wise woman traveling in the mountains who found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and she opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked if she might give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But only a few days later he came back to return the stone to the woman who had given it to him.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I’m giving it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. I want you to give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.”
-Author Unknown
[via EFT Blog]
Neuroscientists say that brain scans show that when people are speaking in tongues, language centers and the part of the brain through which people control what they do are relatively quiet—supporting the description of the experience people say they are having.
[via rebecca's pocket | speak yourself]
“I’m thirty years old, but I read at the thirty-four-year-old level.”
-Dana Carvey
If I Did It? How about “If I HAD Done It”?
Verb tense, folks, verb tense!