Conference Call

Some of the brothers from the fraternity put together a conference call so many of us who couldn't make it to JimBob's funeral could get a chance to talk. It was great to catch up with the guys.

Question: why is it so strange to imagine the young, crazy fraternity brothers as mature, upstanding, (almost all) married fathers?

It was great to hear their voices; they all sounded the same, just a little older. The wonders of technology that can allow guys from all over the world (literally; Patrick called in from China) to talk together on the phone.

But I had to laugh at the thought of a conference call; I used 3-way calling once as a teenager to call two Pizza Hut restaurants in town as a prank to make them think that the other had called them... but before that, the closest I'd come to a conference call was on the party line in Normanda.

R.I.P. JimBob

If you didn't already know, I was in a fraternity in college. One of the fun things about being in a fraternity was the guys you not only got to meet, but got to know. Through the pledge period, you certainly got to know your pledge brothers well - better than most of the other brothers.

There were all kinds of characters in our pledge class; there were guys with names like Rick and Rob and Jeff (whose name was Gunch Ffej if you pronounced it backwards). There were others with names like Dudley and Schaff (can you dig it?). And then there were still others like Woody, Goat, Scud, Homey Dog, and JimBob (if you don't know which of those ten was me, well, I'm not telling).

Something about fraternity life leads one to believe that life will last forever. I pretty much am of the opinion that if the kitchen didn't kill us, nothing could.

That myth was shattered this week, as I got the news: JimBob died of heart failure.

It certainly made me think. About my own mortality, about how short life is, and about Jim Bob.

We used to joke that he was a vampire. Not because he'd bite people (that would have been waaay out of his character), but because he was pretty much nocturnal. He'd stay up all night, only to sleep all day. Sometimes he'd be up for 36 hours straight. I remember once when he stayed up all night studying for yesterday's test.

He was one of the good guys, and this world will miss him.

Tis the Season

For the gym to be filled. Another new year has dawned, and resolutions have been made - this is the year I'm going to work off the fat I've gained over the past year, 5 years, 10 years, or whatever. Starting January 1, I will lose all those pounds that so much fast food and office work have added to my frame. I'm going to feel better about myself, I'm going to look better...

...until one of those bugs that goes around hits and I get out of the habit of going to the gym.
...or until a big snowstorm hits and I can't make it.
...or until things stack up at work or home and I can't find the time.
...or until I realize how hard it is to lose that weight; that it comes off about as fast as I put it on.
...or whatever the excuse.

Then it's back to the normal routine, and no real change has been made.

I see a spiritual parallel here: often something comes along that kicks us in the seat and causes us to want some sort of spiritual transformation. Maybe it's a "mountaintop" experience at a church camp or retreat. Maybe it's a moving church service or a particularly touching message. Maybe it's a crisis (9/11 provided one of those, and churches were full for the next few weeks).

But something happens: maybe you miss a week or two, which becomes three or four; maybe other things compete for your time; perhaps you keep hearing hard sayings - hard to reconcile with the world as you know it or hard to actually accomplish, maybe you realize that this Christianity thing isn't so easy and it just seems easier to go along like before; or maybe you are carrying so much baggage that you don't see the results you hoped for and you give up.

This is why I think personal relationship is key for spiritual growth. It is one of the reasons I cringe when I hear someone say that they stay home and watch one of their favorite preachers on TV and that's "church" for them. They miss out on the group, and the group misses out on their input. They miss out on the work that is naturally a part of living in community, the work that causes growth.

I'm not saying that people can't grow spiritually by themselves; I'm just saying that it's not the usual way it happens. And just like I know that the gym will be much emptier in a month, so, too, will those who just begin showing up for Sunday-only church experiences drop off if they don't make a connection.

Why didn't anyone tell me that Johnny Marr was in Modest Mouse?

Woo Hoo!

In Sunday's message, I quoted youth ministry pioneer Mike Yaconelli from his book Messy Spirituality and from one of his speeches at Youth Specialties' National Youthworkers Convention; he was talking about a youthworker who had been "disciplined" because the church saw his junior highers sitting on the church lawn, smoking cigarettes. Mike said that if he was the pastor, he'd call the youthworker in and tell him, "You deserve a raise; if you can get kids who smoke to read the Bible... WOO HOO!"

I used that quote and ended up with a loud, arms-raised woo hoo.

Know that though I wear my heart on my sleeve, I'm not a loud preacher. I don't yell at the congregation. I don't say Woo Hoo a lot from the stage. But it was called for Sunday, and it was awesome. I can't really put my finger on what it was about it. Maybe it was adrenaline, but whatever the case, I was fired up. I was excited. I was nervous about the message itself; it was one that could have drawn a bit of heat from some who don't like change very much, and I wasn't really sure how "woo hoo" would go over, but once I shouted it out, I was ready to take on the world!

Perhaps it was just the adrenaline. Or maybe it was Mike Yaconelli, watching from Heaven, asking God, "Hey, he's using my quotes; can I have some fun with this?"
Whatever the case, it sure was fun! What a ride!!!!

Moving violations are easy to fix; just tell the DJ to fix it in the mix.

I have stolen this from John at the Zeray Gazette (which I need to change from Locusts and Honey on my sidebar), one of the few blogs I keep up with.

In 2000, a board of authors and literary critics created a list for Random House of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th Century. This is that list. I've bolded the works that I've read.

1. (1922) Ulysses James Joyce
2. (1925) The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. (1916) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
4. (1955) Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
5. (1932) Brave New World Aldous Huxley
6. (1929) The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
7. (1961) Catch-22 Joseph Heller
8. (1940) Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler
9. (1913) Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence
10. (1939) The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
11. (1947) Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry
12. (1903) The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler
13. (1949) Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
14. (1934) I, Claudius Robert Graves
15. (1927) To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
16. (1925) An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser
17. (1940) The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
18. (1969) Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
19. (1952) Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
20. (1940) Native Son Richard Wright
21. (1959) Henderson the Rain King Saul Bellow
22. (1934) Appointment in Samarra John O'Hara
23. (1938) U.S.A. (trilogy) John Dos Passos
24. (1919) Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson
25. (1924) A Passage to India E. M. Forster
26. (1902) The Wings of the Dove Henry James
27. (1903) The Ambassadors Henry James
28. (1934) Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. (1935) Studs Lonigan (trilogy) James T. Farrell
30. (1915) The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford
31. (1945) Animal Farm George Orwell
32. (1904) The Golden Bowl Henry James
33. (1900) Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser
34. (1934) A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh
35. (1930) As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
36. (1946) All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren
37. (1927) The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
38. (1910) Howards End E. M. Forster
39. (1953) Go Tell It on the Mountain James Baldwin
40. (1948) The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene
41. (1954) Lord of the Flies William Golding
42. (1970) Deliverance James Dickey
43. (1951-1975) A Dance to the Music of Time (series) Anthony Powell
44. (1928) Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley
45. (1926) The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
46. (1907) The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad
47. (1904) Nostromo Joseph Conrad
48. (1915) The Rainbow D. H. Lawrence
49. (1920) Women in Love D. H. Lawrence
50. (1934) Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
51. (1948) The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer
52. (1969) Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth
53. (1962) Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov
54. (1932) Light in August William Faulkner
55. (1957) On the Road Jack Kerouac
56. (1930) The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
57. (1924-1928) Parade's End Ford Madox Ford
58. (1920) The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
59. (1911) Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm
60. (1961) The Moviegoer Walker Percy
61. (1927) Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather
62. (1951) From Here to Eternity James Jones
63. (1957) The Wapshot Chronicle John Cheever
64. (1951) The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger
65. (1962) A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
66. (1915) Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham
67. (1902) Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
68. (1920) Main Street Sinclair Lewis
69. (1905) The House of Mirth Edith Wharton
70. (1957-1960) The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell
71. (1929) A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes
72. (1961) A House for Mr Biswas V. S. Naipaul
73. (1939) The Day of the Locust Nathanael West
74. (1929) A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway
75. (1938) Scoop Evelyn Waugh
76. (1962) The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark
77. (1939) Finnegans Wake James Joyce
78. (1901) Kim Rudyard Kipling
79. (1908) A Room with a View E. M. Forster
80. (1945) Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
81. (1953) The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow
82. (1971) Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner
83. (1979) A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul
84. (1938) The Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen
85. (1900) Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
86. (1975) Ragtime E. L. Doctorow
87. (1908) The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett
88. (1903) The Call of the Wild Jack London
89. (1945) Loving Henry Green
90. (1980) Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie
91. (1932) Tobacco Road Erskine Caldwell
92. (1983) Ironweed William Kennedy
93. (1965) The Magus John Fowles
94. (1966) Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
95. (1954) Under the Net Iris Murdoch
96. (1979) Sophie's Choice William Styron
97. (1949) The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles
98. (1934) The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain
99. (1955) The Ginger Man J. P. Donleavy
100. (1918) The Magnificent Ambersons Booth Tarkington

What I wonder is how many have read these books, and how many of these books have you read by choice?