Facebook Phenomenon

I have no idea how this has spread so quickly. I usually buck the trends, especially the overexposing ones. But I’ve really been enjoying reading my friends thoughts and facts. So I’m caving.

25 Facts About Myself:

1. I have studied 5 different languages: French, German, Russian, Spanish & Old English.
2. I can’t play baseball. Not at all. I can’t throw, I can’t catch, and I don’t know how to connect the bat to the ball.
3. I was instrumental in the breaking of my little brother’s arm.
4. I have kept a journal of some sort since I was 16. That adds up to a lot of books. They are all in my closet, and I rarely look at them, but when I do…it makes me happy.
5. In grade 8, I won the Music Award for my amazing baritone skills.
6. I love going to new places and different cultures. Once I go to Asia and Australia, I’ll have been to all the major continents. I am going to Africa this spring, and am uber-excited.
7. I don’t particularly like flying, although I love roadtrips and traveling on trains and boats.  I sometimes get carsick. Especially if I read in transit. I always get sick on the landing of a flight. That is why God created Gravol. I find driving in a car very soothing, which is great when you’re a passenger, not so much when you’re driving. However, I have great trouble actually sleeping in a car (or any upright position).
8. My favourite number is 4. It has been ever since I discovered that 4 x 4 is 16, my previous favourite number.
9. I am still a little bit afraid of the dark.
10. If I could choose an alternative career, I would be a massage therapist.
11. I would rather eat a square of dark chocolate everyday than have a cup of tea or coffee.
12. I don’t drink coffee. Or beer. I prefer girly drinks and a good Earl Grey tea.
13. I want to be a vegetarian. Specifically one who eats locally & organically. But I am too lazy & poor.
14. My default food at a restaurant is a quesadilla. I am rarely off-put by a quesadilla.
15. I don’t always use recipes when I bake. This sometimes gets me in trouble.
16. I have never been drunk. Sometimes I think it would be an interesting experiment, just to see what sort of drunk I am. But I don’t actually want to do it.
17. I would rather be blind than deaf, because I can’t imagine my life without music or eavesdropping.
18. I have dreamt things before they’ve happened.
19. I am too impatient to be really good at most things.
20. I want to publish a book or stories or poetry someday. Preferably soon.
21. I get a little bit giggly over Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan, even though they are both old enough to be my father.
22. I’m not actually cool. I just hang out with a lot of cool people and absorb the coolness. By which I mean, there are few things that I actively seek out – most of my knowledge/experience/interests have come by way of others, and I wouldn’t have sought them out on my own.
23. The exceptions to #22 are ultimate frisbee, photography, creative writing, and babies.
24. Speaking of babies, there are a handful of names that I would really like to name my children someday. I won’t tell you, lest you steal them.
25. If I were to summarize my life in seven words (as JFarq once asked of me), they would be: Jesus makes my life worth living.

(bonus fact: I love the sky. Especially the night sky, replete with stars. But sunrise, sunsets, big fluffy clouds or strungout strands on bright blue…I love ‘em.)

Books On The Go

I am currently reading:

unChristian: how Christianity is perceived by 16-29 year olds and why it matters

Wide Awake: why our dreams (hopes) matter, and how to start pursuing them

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: exactly how it sounds. Emotional health + spirituality = goodness

I love them all. I can’t wait to finish them. But I’m taking my time. Maybe I will post excerpts or quotes sometime.

Chewing the Cud

Last summer, I took a class taught by a man named Erik Thoennes. I appreciated many things about him and about the class, and was flipping through my notes this morning. A year later, the following quotes (along with many others) still make me stop and think:

• We’re latent gnostics, most of us. We don’t think real stuff has anything to do with eternal reality.
• We are masters at talking about nothing.
• We’ve got lots of rhetoric without reason, and we’re living on that rhetoric.
• If I have a conversation with you and right after I find out I have broccoli in my teeth, you are not my friend!
• Some say that the only heresy is that there is such a thing as heresy.
• Theology without devotion is cold, dead, stale orthodoxy. Devotion without theology is fanaticism.
• I feel like we could just stay in therapy forever…
• If you start losing [your heart of wonder], do whatever you can to get it back.
• If people leave and don’t get to know Jesus a little better when they spend time with you, we’re missing it.
• Spirituality is wonderful until you have answers. Then it’s problematic.

Meaning

According to Solomon, potentially the wisest man who ever lived, the following things are meaningless:

1. Everything
2. Understanding wisdom, madness & folly
3. Pleasure & indulgence
4. Toil (working night & day)
5. Labour & achievement that stem from envy
6. Position without wisdom
7. Much dreaming & many words
8. Loving wealth & being dissatisfied
9. Having things but not enjoying them
10. The wicked being praised
11. Righteous people getting what the wicked deserve and vice versa
12. Youth & vigour

On the flip-side, Solomon exhorts his readers to:

1. Be happy & do good
2. Eat & drink & find satisfaction in your work
3. Enjoy your work
4. Eat & drink & find joy in your labour
5. Enjoy the blessings God has given you, accept your lot & be happy
6. Enjoy life: eat, drink & be glad
7. Enjoy life with your spouse, whom you love
8. Be happy while you are young
9. Remember your Creator
10. Fear God & keep His commands

(Notice any trends there?)