Profundities
I’d like to think that I’m chock full of profundities. You know, little gems of thought & common sense that will amaze and astound you such that you’ll not only regularly read my blog, but that you’ll also pass them along so that more & more folks can bask in the shared glow of my entertaining wisdom.
Alas and alack, such is not the case.
I’m neither as profound, nor as entertaining as I want to be. Not in your estimation, and certainly not in my own.
I’ll try to work on it, however, so that I’m at least reasonably entertaining enough to warrant a few of your thought cycles every day or three. And I figure that the best way to be a worthy read is to be interested in what I’m writing. As long as I’m happy with, and interested in, what I write, then that’s enough for me. I have enough things making me crazy in day-to-day life, that I don’t need to load a worry about pleasing/catering to my “audience” on top of it all. That’s not to belittle y’all — ’cause I’m grateful for all y’all’s visits — but rather a check on myself & my own delusions of adequacy (someday I hope to have delusions of grandeur!). I’m really not as snarky as I sometimes come off as being on this blog (close, but not quite) — it’s just that it’s most times easier to write that way and, I think, a little more entertaining to read. Sort of like the difference between reading TV Guide and a “real” book. It’s easier to blast out a few posts that have a kernel of substance amidst the snark than it is to constantly try to put out deep/profound/meaningful posts. I will still (try to) put out the “significant” stuff every so often, but I just don’t think I can (or want) to do that exclusively — taking myself that seriously is not, I think, a good & beneficial thing…
So, I’m hoping that writing will start to come a little easier now that the double-edged sword that is American Idol (aka AI:6) is about to grace/plague us with its presence once again. I know full well that it’s not really all that significant in the “big picture”, as it’s really just a piece of superficial pop-culture fluff, but it’s an interesting piece of fluff. Realitytv isn’t gonna save the world, but it doesn’t have to; rather, it can help keep us entertained. The same is true of discussing it & writing about it.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it… 
-ghp
Ouch…
[NOTE: The numbers below were accurate prior to the Territorial Purging of the Archives in Sept 2007...]
From a recent posting over at Random Thoughts of a Confessional Lutheran:
“That being said, I have a new pet peeve: reality TV blogging. Please people. If you want to watch the stuff, fine, but don’t expect me to be reading your posts anymore. I’ve seen two good bloggers turn to mush because of reality TV.”
Ouch. That’s gotta hurt those two unnamed bloggers…
Fwiw, I just ran the numbers since I started blogging just over 2 years ago, and here they are:
609 posts
156,000+ words
| Category | Total |
% |
Year 1 |
% |
Year 2 |
% |
| asides | 39 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 10 |
| culture | 82 | 13 | 34 | 11 | 48 | 12 |
| realitytv | 115 | 19 | 24 | 8 | 91 | 23 |
| general | 86 | 14 | 39 | 13 | 47 | 12 |
| technology | 35 | 6 | 16 | 5 | 19 | 5 |
| blogging | 57 | 9 | 24 | 8 | 33 | 8 |
| theology | 289 | 48 | 164 | 55 | 125 | 31 |
| 703 | 301 | 402 |
Note: The category numbers add up to 703, rather than 609, due to posts with multiple categories…
All things considered, I think that the numbers are interesting, insofar as they validate my perception that I’m still primarily a theology-pundit blogger, with a strong dash of pop-culture punditry blended in. And I’m cool with that…
-ghp
Back in the saddle
I’m back. And you didn’t even realize I was gone, did you? 
We (the Territorial Family) spent the long weekend visiting my parents at the ancestral home — the Territorial Incubator, if you will…
It’s always an interesting thing, these visits, if for no other reason than the inter-generational dynamics that are on display. I worry about how my kids behave, because I still worry about making my parents upset, even as/though they are far more tolerant of things because they are approaching said behavior from a ‘grandparent-ly’ point-of-view. It’s also interesting (such a dispassionate word!) to note how I tend to regress and/or revert to type in the house in which I spent my most formative years. There’s so much that’s different, but yet so much that makes me feel just like I did 30 years ago. If nothing else, it serves to illustrate for me the many ways in which I have kept to, and deviated from, the patterns by which my parents have lived their daily lives.
Not only do such visits bring into sharper relief the ways in which I have aged, they also make me face up to the ways in which my parents have aged. In my mind’s eye, my parents are frozen at about 40 years-old — i.e., my view of them when I was about 10. Even as the past 30 years have gone by, that’s still how I view them when I think of them. It’s comforting, in a way, as it allows me to always fall back on that sense of child-like awe & reverence that kids need to have about their parents. My dad will always be that ultimate arbiter of truth & “rightness” — I may not have always liked it, but I always believed in & respected the authority he projected & represented. My mom will always be the even-tempered, all-knowing, and ultimate ally — the smartest, most caring woman in the world. (Big sis will always be the coolest, and the best example that a weaselly little brother could ever hope to have — but since she wasn’t there this weekend, I’ll leave it at that… )
Among the many things that I’m thankful to my parents for/about, one stands out in particular. One thing that I’ve learned during my almost 39 years on Earth (about 35 of which I’m actually aware — the first 4 are kinda fuzzy…) is that my parents have done me & big sis a great service by not subjecting us to the same restrictions that were placed upon them. My parents, in their nearly 50 years of marriage, have been subjected to the largely unreasonable expectations of familial demands & obligations. This is neither the time, nor the place for airing the laundry list; rather, suffice it to say that they have endured far more than I would’ve ever been able to, and have done so far more gracefully than could’ve ever been expected. In that context, then, the gift that my parents have given us (me & big sis) is this: they did not subject us to the same “burden of the law” to which they had been subjected. We were not made to feel guilt about going away to college, or moving away after getting married (even hundreds of miles away, and not just the 10 miles away that earned my parents such scorn 31 years ago…). As a parent, a man, and a human, I’m humbled, awed, and thankful for the way in which my parents have lived their lives in a true Christian, Gospel-driven way. They have modeled how to do things such that I truly do not feel the lash of the Law as a motivator, but rather the love of the Gospel.
While this might sound/read like I’m in a maudlin mood, I’m not. I’m thankful — to my parents for their love & example, and to God for my parents.
I’m also thankful to God for Christ on the cross, so that my salvation is not dependent on anything other than Christ on the cross. For if it was necessary for me to contribute in any way at all, I’d surely be on the hell-express. I prove to myself every day that I am powerless to effect any control (in myself or others) or results other than screwing things up.
Anyway, that’s where I was. I planned on blogging, especially now that my parents have broadband, but circumstances colluded such that I never got the chance, with Sat & Sun both presenting obstacles, largely of my own creation. Sometimes I can be quite the bozo…
Shocking, and sad, but true… 
-ghp
Sensitivity
So, I attended a sensitivity workshop yesterday. Working on a university campus, these things are unavoidable from time to time. And to be honest, it really wasn’t all that bad, especially compared to some that I’ve been exposed to at other places of employment. But I digress…
It was pretty standard “awareness-enhancing”/”diversity” type of stuff, but there was one exercise where I’m sure that my response raised some internal eyebrows. More specifically, we had to choose one of four things that we would least like our children to be. The choices? Drug Addict. Mentally Ill. Convicted Felon. Gay/Lesbian.
I was the only one that chose “Gay/Lesbian”… 
Fortunately, I had a little time to come up with my reasons why, as we were required to give a brief explanation. Now, I think that I generally did ok with my explanation, but I’m not totally pleased in retrospect, especially as I would’ve liked to done a better job of preemptively addressing the implicit disapproval that was shown by the folks who felt the need to couch their answers by explicitly stating that they would (of course/obviously) have no problem if their kids were gay/lesbian.
I based my answer on two things:
- Social - in our current culture being gay/lesbian is not an easy row to hoe, even though in many circles it’s very accepted. There’s still a lot of sinful behavior directed against gays/lesbians. Frankly, I wouldn’t want either of my kids to end up like Matthew Sheppard, or any of the other folks who’ve been beaten by misguided folks who thought that physical violence was an acceptable response.
- Theological - I clearly stated that I also had theological/religious reasons for not wanting my kids to be gay/lesbian. For good/bad/right/wrong, I didn’t elaborate the reasons why, but just left it at the statement that I had strongly held, faith-driven reasons for my choice.
I wish I had been a little more explicit in better fleshing out my reasons/thought processes. Fortunately, as I have my own little forum here, I can do so now!
- The other three choices (drug addict, mentally ill, convicted felon) are all things that are generally recognized by most reasonable folks as things for which help can & should be provided. IOW, they are viewed as negative states that must be addressed.
- This is not the case with being gay/lesbian, if you are approaching it from a truly Biblical perspective — IOW, that which the Bible clearly shows to be sinful, is something that society increasingly views as ok & even to be celebrated rather than prayerfully addressed.
- There are (rightly) medical & support options for addicts & the mentally ill. We can, and must, be compassionate in helping these folks overcome these circumstances that result from our sinful condition. The same is true of rehabilitated felons — many folks realize that convicted (and rehabilitated) felons need help in rebuilding their lives.
- Society doesn’t give the same benefit to those whose lives are impacted by the sin that is homosexuality. I don’t want my kids to have society encourage their sinful tendencies any more than is absolutely unavoidable. I wouldn’t want them to be unnecessarily tempted by societal approval of over-drinking and/or over-eating, either.
- It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t love my kids. I will always love my children. I may not always like them and/or their choices/responses, but I will always love them & try to faithfully execute my vocational responsibilities re: their spiritual well-being. That I wouldn’t want them to be gay/lesbian should never be misconstrued/misrepresented as a lack, or withdrawal, of love. Approval, possibly/certainly, but love, never.
I guess it largely boils down to this: Current “tolerance” & “sensitivities” seem to dictate that it is wrong (or at the very least ignorant) to view all four things as negative/unfortunate conditions that need to be addressed with compassionate support & concern for folks’ temporal & eternal well-being.
I pray that, should the opportunity present itself again, I’m able to more resolutely confess based upon that which has been given to me!
-ghp
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