Who doesn’t like homemade stuff? From the stick figure drawings that decorate our fridges to the knitted mittens and crocheted tablecloths our grandmas give us for Christmas. Almost never flawless, these items are still of far more value to us than their often prettier or more stylish counterparts in stores across the country. I myself have often received gifts (mostly from little siblings) of three-inch scarves barely long enough to warm my big toe, hats with either the head-hole sewn shut or both ends gaping open like craters (these last DO make nice neckwarmers…a proposition usually greeted by the maker with smiles and declarations of “See, that’s exactly what I made it for. I thought it would work better that way. Bet you thought it was a hat didn’t you? Haha.”) Of course I have always loved and cherished these gifts, evidences of the time and care my siblings have lavished upon me. I have no problem with that at all.

But when we grow up are we not to put away childish things? In our country of instant gratification, Walmarts, shopping malls, internet and factories, it is far too common that adults can do no better than those adorably useless trinkets we smiled at from kids. It’s not quite as cute when you receive from adults two-foot table-cloths that you have to graciously pretend were meant to be placemats, or lopsided curtains that you cringe to see adorning your windows but would offend the gift-giver to take down.

Handmade gifts are great, but we really ought to learn how to make them. We’ve all seen the intricately complicated masterpieces of lace or yarn that have been passed as heirlooms through generations gracing tables with their swirls and families with their histories. Most of us can agree that homemade gifts can be more meaningful than store bought ones, but we should make the effort to see that they are useful and practical too. As I said previously, I am as much at fault as the next person. I’m horrible at knitting, crocheting, sewing and most of these other lost arts. And I’m ashamed of that fact.

So here’s to all those moms and grandmas who love arts and crafts, and here’s one more person that wants to join the group. I don’t want to merely pass on heirlooms. I want to start some of my own. Find some needles, dig up some patterns, let’s graduate from the realm of headless hats and neckless sweaters.

Like most other arts it will take time and practice, but it can be done. And this doesn’t just apply to knitting and sewing…there are tons of arts that are being swallowed up in this demanding commercialized culture. Cooking, canning, drawing, painting, writing, journaling, or making music to name a few. And men (if you’re still here) some of these work for you too and I’m sure there are other things that apply to you as well…wood carving for instance. Put those knives to some use.

Sad to say, here I am apologizing for not posting. The thing is, our esteemed ranter Caleb is taking a break. And everybody else has been keeping busy, even including me.

Yep.

I’ll write some stuff. But it could be slow. Stick the blog in your RSS reader or grab an email subscription and then wait for it to cook.

I think we can all remember back to the day where those cheesy commercials would come out with some famous cartoon character asking kids not to smoke. “Don’t Smoke” had been the mantra to our children since my grandfather’s time. I think it’s making a comeback, and I have evidence.

Exhibit A: Our president has been fighting the cigarette habit and has been winning for nine months.

B: The News has been eating it up.

C. Castro smokes cigars.

I can just see the new commercial with our commander in chief asking kids not to be communist dictators, but peace loving, non-smoking Americans. Never mind the fact that Castro has been in power for about fifty years. Dang, he must be in his eighties. And has anyone seen him without a huge, Cuban cigar stemming from his teeth? No. But then again, those are better than cigarettes. Nasty little buggers.

All this to say, don’t settle for the cheap stuff, go for the good. If you want to make it a habit, the best way to slow it down is to make it expensive. That is why it is hard to get drunk from good whiskey. You can buy a bottle of the cheap paint thinner for about as much as one shot of the sweet ambrosia that melts my heart.

Naw, I’m just kidding. Only the love of my life, Hannah, melts my heart. But I digress, please kids, don’t smoke cigarettes. If you are male and want to be like C.S. Lewis, smoke a good pipe with some beer around the fireplace, or in a decent pub. Don’t be like Mr. President, who now has to try to quit because he smokes the stuff hobos are made of.

This seems like a big hullabaloo, but it really doesn’t mean that much to me. Maybe you see it, but I don’t. So we figured out that we don’t know much about our world and how life forms can live, big deal. I could have told you that. Socrates told you that. Let me repeat, we don’t know squat. We try to, as we should, but we don’t. I understand the cool factor in all this, but to say that “this changes everything…” okay, that was quoted, but under protest. I don’t get it. I just don’t. I mean… wait… a… sec…

Bacteria: a micro organism that spreads faster than bunnies on spring break. Arsenic: a poison to every other living creature known to humanity. This just became way more exciting… and scary. But wait, why hasn’t this killed everyone on the face of the planet already? This confuses me. I’m sure their is a good reason though. What I worry about is that the scientists that tested the atomic bomb when they wondered if it would turn the earth to a sun now have their hands on this. “I wonder if this could wipe out all life on earth. Let’s find out!”

I feel like I’m in one of those cheap Sci-Fi horror flicks. I need to read up on how to be one of the few to survive such things. I suggest you do the same… Actually, never mind. I’m over reacting. Really, I am. Go ahead and do whatever you are doing. I’ll be okay.

Trivia question:

How serious is suicide as far as Christians are concerned? I do not believe it can make you lose salvation, because I believe, like all good baptists/ reforms do, that salvation is permanent once it happens. However, why did the Catholics say that is was so serious as to lose salvation? Why do some theologians say it is the ONLY theological question? I mean, come on, murder? Rape? No? Seriously? Why suicide? Why am I even asking all these parallel questions?

Let me begin with an interesting story. Once upon a time, there was a mean bully that hurt a little girl. There was another boy who saw the incident and tried to kill the bully, but was stopped by a teacher. If he had killed the boy, it would have been murder, because it was not the boy’s place to do so. It was the bully’s parents job. But let us not condemn the boy too harshly, for he was noble in his error. After all, the Bible has the Apostle Paul do the same thing when he was Saul… only to a greater degree. He saw a bunch of people he thought were against God called Christians. He killed as many as he could, murdering them, until God set him strait. Were the murders bad thing? Of course! It followed and haunted Paul for the rest of his life… but he was still Paul the Apostle.

Now, where and who in the Bible do we find suicides? Anything come to mind? Well, there’s the other Saul. You remember, the King of Israel? He decided at the end of his reign, in order to keep the Philistines from torturing him, to “fall upon his sword.” His head was then taken off and placed in the temple of Dagon for a spell. That worked well. Where else do we see men falling on their swords? What about the enemies of Gideon, who were so afraid of the trumpets and torches that they all killed themselves. That wasn’t very good either. Nope, not a good ending. So here’s my diagnosis,  suicide, in Scripture, is for the enemies of God. Where else to you find suicide than someone who is hopeless in his sin… in Scripture?

Why would one commit suicide if they believe in an omnipotent God? I don’t mean the heathen, I am talking about saved believers. If you believe God is in control, and you commit suicide, you are telling God directly as you go to His presence, “I don’t care! Your way is not worth it. I’m doing my life my way, and if you won’t let me live my way, then, by You, I’ll die my way. My final act of WILL!” These deaths are NEVER funny. In fact, they are the saddest, most tragic, most morbid deaths of all. If a heathen thinks that their life has no control, and that they are holding onto life by the flapping tongue of a dragon, and if they said, “What the heck, this is too hard. I’ll just let go before I’m dragon food,” I don’t think it is near as tragic. In fact, many can be quite hilarious… Like this one time, I watched a movie… I forget the name. There was this business tycoon who got so fed up with it all that he jumped through a broken window and died. Wait, that’s not the punch line. Few weeks later, this other guy says he’s going to jump through the same window, now repaired. It shows this long scene of everyone but one man staring at him in horror as he runs for window. Won’t anyone stop him? He jumps! … and sticks to the glass as he slides down slowly cartoon style. The dazed man looks up in embarrassment at his failed attempt to see the one man not in horror say two words, “Reinforced glass.”

Let’s wrap this up. 1. Suicide is sin, as any other sin, but with one caveat. Suicide is always direct and embittered rebellion to the very nature of God as far as Christians are concerned. It is, as it were, a second fall, not that one loses salvation, but that they disregard their salvation so they can say, “I did it MY way.” I know Christians that I considered friends that have taken this route, and can not imagine what had made them do this. 2. amongst the heathen, suicide is an equal sin to murder, and… not to kick a dead horse… so I won’t, but you get it. Hoops! that was the name of the movie, I think. 3. To conclude, if you are not a Christian and believe that the earth is over populated and you tell Christians to not have babies and to “leave” the earth, please lead by example. That will give me a few more people to laugh at. If not, however, let me be very… very… clear. Life is worth it. Suicide isn’t. When you ask the question, “To be or not to be?” remember we serve a living, all powerful God who pulls the strings, and that “All things work together for the good of those that love Him, for all those according to His purpose.” I think I quoted that right, but don’t kill me if I messed up. That’s God’s job.

The header image is a crop of one of my photographs. Right now it’s sort of hacked in, as the header image replacement doesn’t appear to be working with the theme; I suspect it has to do with the file permissions we have.

I guess we’ll be back to our regular look after a while. I think…

Update: Demo aborted for now. It appears to not play nice with FD Footnotes. I may try to track down the problem, as Twenty Ten is pretty cool.

Update 2: Turns out it was a conflict with Google Analytics for WordPress, which I installed today. Tracking of outbound clicks and downloads has been turned off, that fixed the problem. We may need to do some investigation into a replacement or just using the regular GA code since tracking outbound clicks is a nice capability.

So… we’re now demoing Twenty Ten again.

Let us examine my vague arsenal of half-facts. One, an oil-rig blew up. Two, there was a pipe sticking out of the ground for our convenience. Three, the oil WAS in a localized location, and it was highly possible to burn most of it off right there, as it was recommended for us to do. Four, environuts said we could not burn because it would hurt the environment. Five, the blame game began and oil is still spilling out of the pipe. I know, it sounds like I’m in the blame game and am against the environuts, but that is not so. I was against them before this ever happened. It was not their fault the rig blew up. As a matter of fact, that is my point. It was old, it shifted, and it blew. A tragedy happened and we are left with a gorgeous hue of orange on the blue and black water. You will pardon me if I sound flippant, or not if you must hate me. So what do we do if we don’t blame anybody? Who will get stuck with the bill to clean it up if blame is not placed? I personally still think we should light a match and call it even. If a hurricane ever came through, it would be the most awesome firework display the world has ever seen. However, if that is voted down, then I say we all split the bill: Mexico, America, and Britain. If we can’t agree to clean up our own boating lake, then how can we agree to do anything? Oh, wait, we can’t. We can’t even agree on what the world “natural” means. “Natural,” as far as I can tell, means from the earth, raw and untouched by man. Well, here you go my friends, and as soon as that hurricane comes through, we can have a natural wonder on the forth of July. I’ll bring the beer if you bring the lighter.

So, have a look at our tag cloud if you wish. It will get bigger as we write more posts. I’ve also added a link on the top nav bar to bring the page into view. Enjoy.