Twenty two years and counting...

Green Bay Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, recently broke Tom Brady’s NFL record of 288 successive completed passes at home without an interception. Awesome... and he’s still going strong. That’s right up there with Brett Favre’s record of consecutive starts as an NFL quarterback. Unparalleled grit and stamina. It must have something to do with the air in Green Bay. (Can you tell I’m from Wisconsin?)

As impressed as I am, setting records is not a driving force for me. Yet, I wonder if we are setting one anyway?  I hope not.

This hidden obsession...

I like Spotify. Other streaming audio sources, like Pandora, don't allow me to connect from a non-US IP. Spotify is not based in the US... different set of rules, I guess.

Taylor Swift dumped Spotify. I hadn't noticed until I saw it on the news. I "unliked" her enough at the outset so that she wasn't popping up anymore in my radio channnels.

One old man...

“...an old man in the days of Saul...” (1Sa 17:12)

I don't know why these passages about old men grab my attention more lately.

Jesse: grandson of Boaz and Ruth, father of eight sons, the youngest being David.

Old, but not useless. God still intends to bless Jesse; God still expects obedience from Jesse. Samuel calls him to a sacrifice... "oh, and bring your sons."

Corrections...

I haven't been writing because I had a sore throat. Sounds lame, I know. I'm feeling great today. So great, in fact, that now I want to fake an illness about once a month to score some more cortisone shots.

I hate it when people distort historical facts. So, I need to clean up my mess before I move on.

One Hundred and Ten Considerations...

"A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life."  -Milton's Aeropagitica.

I have just a couple of books that might qualify as rare. This is one of them...

"Life and Writings of Juan de Valdes" by Benjamin B. Wiffen. The collaboration between Mr. Wiffen and Don Luis Usóz i Rio in the 19th century to resurrect the lives and writings of 16th century Spanish Reformers is nothing short of an academic marvel. That and Eduard Boehmer's efforts following their demise to finish and achieve the publication of their larger work constitute a lesser known microcosm of Christian history.

Why do we linger?

This one is personal.

It should also be short. I am asking a question that I can't answer.

We tend to lose perspective when certain things befall us. We start with, "why me?" But when we look around a bit, the question becomes, "why not?"

HEAT...

I hate the heat. Always have. Don't know why tourists pick Cancun this time of year. It's miserable. Most of my adult life in this climate, and my body is still wired for northern Wisconsin subzero winters. After a walk, even the sweat-drenched shoes go in the wash.

Heat irritates me, oppresses, exhausts, incites… makes me impatient, impulsive. Reminds me of Albert Camus's, "The Stranger".

The sun was starting to burn my cheeks, and I could feel drops of sweat gathering in my eyebrows. That sun was the same as it had been the day I’d buried Maman, and like then, my forehead especially was hurting me, all the veins in it throbbing under the sun. It was this burning, which I couldn’t stand anymore, that made me move forward. I knew that it was stupid, that I wouldn’t get the sun off me by stepping forward. (1.6.24)

So he blamed the heat, too. It was one of the factors in the inevitability of the killing. And of course, "stepping forward" with it brought no relief.