Me either...at least not anymore....
Link: Undies Wallet - Craftbits.com Craft Project.
Ugh. My son would be so ashamed of us....
To each their own, though...please, literally.
In an effort to keep in line with the following link, I'll keep this short.
Check this out... ChangeThis :: The Simplicity Cycle.
Dan Ward succinctly shows us that increased complexity does not inherently equal increased goodness and instructs us on how to walk that fine line while still innovating.
I believe he has some valid points; however, I would take up the point that things cannot be both complex and good, but maybe he's just missing the mark of the Maker.
Here in the shadow of Earth Day 2006, I think it may be time for the little reminder you'll see below.
I exhibited at the Michigan Healthy Living Expo as a favor to a client on the 22nd, and while I was made nervous by the Hopi Drum Song that started the whole affair, the day turned out to be filled with more people in search of a purer way of living rather than...well...the last visitor to the booth.
In swaggared the scraggley-bearded, GI-Green-wearing, pin-laden man. When I say "pin-laden", I mean, the dude must have made an investment in some kind of pin-making device and was now covered in blue and red circular bilboards with various left-wing and Anti-Bush (no, they're not synonymous) slogans. Having more pins than clothing space, he even purchased some pink and purple striped tie from the local thrift and had pinned the snot out of it, throwing it over his shoulder...anyway...let's call him Jerry.
Jerry's first comment was on the bright light that my customer sells on the side. He asked if it was comprable to natural light and, when he was told that it was, stated that he was glad " 'cause that means you can grow stuff under it, man."
Yep...Grow what?...And then, "Hey, wanna buy a pin?"
I, then, caught sight of one of the slogans, white against the red background ..."END FEAR" it read. I asked Jerry, "What do you mean by 'END FEAR'?"
"Aaugh..yeah...it's really more of like uuuuh mental state."
"Like a spiritual thing?" I inquired.
"Yeah, um that's the best kind, man"
Well, whatever Jerry was growing, selling or afraid of...neither he nor I needed any of it.
Link: Nothing to fear but the climate change alarmists.
Here's an inconvenient truth for "An Inconvenient Truth": Remember what they used to call "climate change"? "Global warming." And what did they call it before that? "Global cooling." That was the big worry in the '70s: the forthcoming ice age. Back then, Lowell Ponte had a huge best seller called The Cooling: Has the new ice age already begun? Can we survive? The answer to the first question was: Yes, it had begun. From 1940 to 1970, there was very slight global cooling. That's why the doom-mongers decided the big bucks were in the new-ice-age blockbusters. And yet, amazingly, we've survived. Why? Because in 1970 the planet stopped its very slight global cooling and began to undergo very slight global warming. So in the '80s, the doom-mongers cast off their thermal underwear, climbed into the leopardskin thongs, slathered themselves in sun cream and wired their publishers to change all references to "cooling" to "warming" for the paperback edition. That's why, if you notice, the global-warming crowd begin their scare statistics with "since 1970," an unlikely Year Zero which would not otherwise merit the significance the eco-crowd invest in it. But then in 1998 the planet stopped its very slight global warming and began to resume very slight global cooling. And this time the doom-mongers said,
Well, it's been a while since there's been any kind of update on my blog; so, I thought I'd throw this up there.
Want to see what I've been looking at lately? Take a look at my delicious web selections. It's a great way to share catchy websites. People can also comment on them...I'm also looking at Yahoo MyWeb 2.0, because that links in a little more to some of my other web ventures.
Either way, it's a nice, tidy repository that can be accessed from any computer any time.
Dunno. Give me your feed back. How do you think it could be a benefit to people?
Tommorow, April 5th, at two minutes and three seconds after 1 AM the time and date will be:
01:02:03, 04/05/06
Those of you unwilling to celebrate that early will have a chance to re-celebrate it shorly after 13:00 hours (military)...that is 01:02:03, 04/05/06 on the pm.
Seth Godin's recent blog positng "I don't feel like playing tonight" carries the ring of truth.
No one wants to feel like they're getting played...that the person they are about to transact with is working an angle...or that who they are doesn't matter (it's only their patronage that counts).
That leaves business owners and marketing professionals with two options:
Does this have a trickle down effect? Maybe. Relationships today don't seem to get played on honest footing. How many times have you wondered "why did she ask that?" How many times were you right about alterior motives? Authenticity typically isn't an initial offering, is it?
Take dating for instance. If dating is for the purpose of finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, is that an accurate picture? How many married with children spend hours each day getting ready to spend time with each other? (not that I'm objecting to trying that every once and a while).
Putting your best foot foward, Cinderella, didn't get you the Prince's attention. It was the sooty, unrefinded foot that fit and sealed the deal.
So, how do we strive for authentic, sometimes sooty-foot, interraction in the marketplace? Have we trained our service people to say, "we can't do that" even though our competition is FedEx and Dell who seem to say "anything's possible"? How do you give your national company an authentic appeal to the customer 500 miles removed?
[On the personal side, can we sacrifice the yesness of nice for realness with compassion?]
Is it OK to stay small in business or church influence for the sake of authenticity?..To stay true the message or method that made you successful in the first place?
It was 17 years ago today that this bench held two souls so full of promise back before the war, before the consternation that comes with seeing too much of life.
It wasn't until his nephew's college graduation celebration brought him magnetically back to McCook county, that Jack was forced to relive those moments he had left awash behind him, like the wake that vanishes in the horizon behind, when one is too busy pretending to be too busy with the navigation ahead.
All the garbage. All the nonsense. Forget the weight of your mortal coil for a moment. You are not as you appear. Rather, you are not now as you are called (in)to be(ing).
Focus on that...the future "then" of your potential. Is that who we truly are, yet unrealized? Could it be that our new names that await us (the one written on God's hand, like the infatuated teenagers love) take into account the coming-out-of the garbage and nonsense we so desperately desire to forget?
It seems that in our efforts to forget the garbage and nonsense, we hope to pull ourselves out of our own mire. But what if we are to embrace it instead?
Not roll around in it or delight in it; rather, grab hold of it. Exude patience, defined recently by my bro-in-law as not putting a deadline (for God or ourselves) on the removal of a difficult circumstance.
What if God wants to know the geck, the poop, the bungling puke of our lives, the dark, scary places? What if in that manure is the seed of who we really are?
You see, I want to be known by others (and God for that matter) without the crap, the garbage, but that's not the model is it? The Bible says that God is love and light and in Him is no darkness at all. That when Christ comes back we'll need no light, nor lamp nor sun for HE will be our all.
That darkness is penetrated and pierced. Those that choose Christ, choose to have Him indwell. Does that Light shirk from the dank, muggy blank, blackness parts of who we are?
My bet is that Light overwhelms it.
Heavenly Father, yes. Yes to all that you have for me. Yes to the awful stuff that doesn't have to be tidied or cleaned in order for you to love me. Explode apart the darkness of my ever-present inadequacy. Teach me to be patient and yet live up to the new name you have for me.
What would you like to see more of on this blog? Less of? Leave a comment after the beep...
BEEP.
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