When Today is as Far as We Can See

When Today is as Far as We Can See

Had a few items collect over the last week for posting...

Books A Million - I realized that Books A Million is the anti-Borders or Barnes & Noble. The place has absolutely no atmosphere. It is all white, the music is this tacky muzak, the chairs are a strange grey leather, and there is no hint of interior decorating. Still, I somehow found myself at home there. I ended up spending an hour or so reading in one of their cushy, grey chairs, all the while catching a spattering of employee conversation. I thought to myself, "These are real people, and this is a real store," not some manipulated environment created by Trading Spaces designer wannabees. Hats off to BAM.

Why was Brad Reading Anyway? - That's a good question. I finally got around to picking up Neil Peart's Ghost Rider. I read about two chapters in the store and decided I had to take it home. Great stuff as always from my favorite all around writer. Engaging non-fiction that is as poetic as his song lyrics - really holds my attention. Ghost Rider is the story of Peart's self imposed motorcylce exile following the death of both his daughter and "wife" within a two year period. I'm always intrigued by how poeple deal with loss. Rush's Vapor Trails album was the musical counterpart to this book, so it is cool to gain new insight into Peart's process of recovery which was hinted at in his lyrics. It's interesting to me that a common reaction to the loss of close family always seems to be guilt: at still being alive, at not being grieved enough, or of not being able to save the person you loved. I wonder if believers and non-believers share this struggle in the same way. One dissapointment was finding out that Peart was married to his "wife" only by common-law. Not surprising for someone who doesn't "believe" in God to not take any vows to demonstrate his commitment to his spouse. Note to self, agnostics make bad role models. "I'm not a role model, I'm a drummer. I just hit things with sticks."

Man is Not Free - So long as man must depend on another man to cut his hair, man is not free. At best, man can hope by force of will to cause another man (or woman) to give him the hair cut he desires. Yet the lack of perfect communication between different entities will always prevent the exact replication of the cuttee's desires by the cutter. Sometimes lack of communication will prevent the cuttee from getting inside the shop of the cutter.

They're There to Protect Us - Why is it that I wave to everybody I see in the neighborhood except for the security folks? Why do they make me feel so nervous? I think it is because I feel that they are outsiders, not actually part of the neighborhood. It is the reverse feeling I have when I drive around in a different neighborhood. I feel like everyone knows I don't belong and is suspicious of me. Weird huh?

1 Timothy 2:13-15 - For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

I've always read this and wondered how the woman is saved through childbearing. Maybe it has to do with the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent. But I think the reason this verse seems so strange is that our society disparages the role of childbearing in womanhood. It is seen as optional, something a woman may or may not do in her lifetime. While some women are not called to be mothers, the Bible teaches the exact opposite of what is generally accepted in our culture. Childbearing is closely tied to what it means to be a woman. I think the refusal of a woman to have children is being paralleled with Eve's original transgression in the garden, in which she denied her God given roll as subservient to God through Adam's headship.

90125 - Every time I think I've exhausted the best of music from the 80's, I uncover another hidden gem. Well, this was more like a recovery than a discovery. I'm not a huge Yes fan, but I can't deny the exuberant catchiness of this record. I've always held the belief, albeit a tenuous one, that if people had more 80's rock in their lives, they would be a lot more positive. Listen to Our Song and tell me if having that bass line in your head doesn't give you a little pep in your step. It did for me on my way into work. Thank you Mr. Squire!


Foot upon the stair
Shoulder to the wheel
You can't tell yourself not to care
You can't tell yourself how to feel

That's how it is

It's such a cloudy day
Seems we'll never see the sun
Or feel the day has possibilities
Frozen in the moment - the lack of imagination
Between how it is and how it ought to be...
- Neil Peart