hearts set on pilgrimage
Saturday, March 15, 2003
 
I was watching a Vita-Mix demo at Costco today with my daughter. When I tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Let's go." One of the demo-ers called after us, "Hey, Dad! C'mon back." I said, "No, thanks." He said, "Hey, c'mon. What kind of example are you setting?" I was instantly defensive, "What's that supposed to mean? Don't you mess with my daughter!" "Aw, I was just kidding." he soothed. I refused to be molified, "I just want to walk down this aisle without you messing with my daughter." He continued to try to get us to come back, but I just walked away. It really upset me. I was totally tweaked. It just kind of happened, I didn't have a chance to think out my responses. I'm not usually a very confrontational person in public. Cliche though it may be, I ask myself upon reflection, "What would Jesus do?" I was offended. That always raises a red flag with me. Yeah, I can justify wanting to protect my daughter from some carney trying to manipulate us, but I've always been suspicious of being offended. It smacks too much of pride and closes down the possibilities of acting in love. OTOH, maybe he needed someone to give him some straight feedback on manipulating customers. Or should I have 'turned the other cheek'?
Friday, March 14, 2003
 
For the last 4 years I have been reflecting on how as humans we experience everything through language. Our self-identity, our interpretation of the "reality" around us, all exists for us in our language. Without language and languaging, we aren't human. "In the beginning was the Word..." I've been observing that unless we are languaging something, it doesn't exist for us. Celebration is to bring into existence through language, purposefully. For me, this distinction of 'celebrating' has become a powerful idea. I can celebrate communion-"do this in remembrance of me". Or I can celebrate someone's birthday. During homegroup the other night, we celebrated a woman's birthday. After we sang the song, and she blew out the candle, we started our time of worship. It occurred to me how the practice of blowing out the candle had no meaning for me. And just then it seemed that God showed me how it could symbolize our self-death. That we could blow out the candle on our birthday cake as a way of saying with John the Baptist, "He must increase, I must decrease." or with Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

And unless that's our story about it, or we have another story about it (and stories always exist in language), it doesn't mean anything.

Wednesday, March 12, 2003
 
And now to add Squawkbox commenting, also inspired by Jon Reid.
While I'm at it, I'll incorporate his "other blog's" and "other sites" sections as well.
Thanks for leading Jon!
 
Talk about self referential! I'm testing the Blog This! shortcut. Also, from the time of the post, you can also tell that I'm having trouble sleeping tonight. Reading Jon's and Todd's blog's and thinking about the contribution I might make, the ante of getting into the conversation and opening this whole new space of possibilities has gotten my mind on overdrive.
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
 
Jon Reid sent me a link to his blog and inspired me to get in the conversation. Thanks, Jon for bringing me into the latest communitytechnology!

I'm a total newbie to weblogs, and I've already lost 60 minutes of work when I tried to post my first entry and lost it to a VBasic error. I'll be less ambitious this time.

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