I remember when New Age Music became an exploding genre. George Winston and Windham Hill Records were cranking out beautiful albums with ambient, sometimes stark, and sometimes stripped-down music of just piano or a fretless bass and a keyboard worked wonders, filling up the silence with emotion. Even Sparrow Records got in on the genre quickly, starting Meadowlark Records, which afforded the great artist from the Northwest, Jeff Johnson, to display his craft. No Shadow Of Turning was a great instrumental album.
So Don almost gets beat up by some hick in a Texas truck stop in chapter 4. Amazingly, he stands up to the idiot guy and fires back at him with humor. He does this at risk of violence, but this time brains wins out over brawn. It was a funny story.
What's to glean from this chapter? I don't know. I'm curious what some of the other Don Miller readers out there think about this book. It's a fun journey and it's neat to read in its honesty. One such conversation of jesting was probably edited out of the first version, which I heard was edited for the CBA market. This "more dangerous" version has two guys jesting about why one isn't attracted to the other. "Is it because of my small breasts," asks Paul, holding his shirt with two hands, pulling teepees in the shape of two mountain peaks on his chest. Something as lighthearted and "innocent" as this might get censored in an environment where a clean plastic veneer is valued more than an honest reenactment.
Humor is an interesting experience. Certainly things can get "out of hand" when jokes start flying, but humor is also something that brings joy and companionship to this life. I bet Jesus joked around with His disciples. Do you think He ever picked up a rock and looked around, saying, "Anyone hungry?"
Prison Break:
I saw the latest episode last night. Some things are going as I figured, and other things are left up in the air as the episode ended. Will T-Bag remove his hand to escape capture? Will prison guard A recover from his head injury? Will Sara get away from this rogue Secret Serviceman?
Breakfast:
I had the perfect bowl of cereal today (in a large cappuccino mug): Rice Crispies and banana slices. There was only enough milk to keep the cereal moist but not soggy, revealing just a drop in the bottom by the time I got to the end of the bowl. As revealed in the mewithoutYou story, I'm picky about my peanut butter & jelly sandwiches (not too much jelly, which makes the entire sandwich soggy) and my cereal.
Dustin Kensrue:
I just got his new solo album in yesterday. I was going to play it in the car today after voting and on the way to work, but it's one of those new "copyright protected" discs that doesn't want to play in many car stereos. Sigh.
Question for Don Miller:
I like the point about how apologetics and the "apologetics craze" that many of us go through somehow feeds this hunger to be thought of as right. It's a way to trump people with our knowlege -- of proving other people wrong. There's something arrogant about that whole idea, and I like how Don pushes that button and shares that message (if I'm getting it right). But I'm curious about this (and feel sorta bad about questioning a guy I admire and love to read): Is this fascination with the metaphysical and quantum physics and the praise heaped upon the movie What the (bleep) do we know? just a reinforcement of the "evils" or wrong motives of apologetics? I have seen the movie (reviewed it in HM) and also appreciate how the right questions are asked in its discussion; but isn't the excitement of seeing how quantum physics seems to point to intelligent even without trying to ... isn't that just like apologetics showing us that "we're right" and "they're wrong?"