Food and Music

Two of my favorite things...

What are some of my favorite foods?

--Breadbowl soups
--Brie cheese
--Roast beef and brie sandwiches
--Crumbly bleu cheese salads
--Lasagna
--Pizza of all sorts, from deep dish to thin crust, but especially thin crust
--Cheesecake
--French Toast
--Mushrooms
--Toast with butter and jam
--Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches
--Fried Calimari
--Honey BBQ chicken wings
--Cheesy bean and rice burritos
--Cream cheese and salmon bagels
--Croissant breakfast sandwiches
--Special K with strawberries
--Mango flavored drinks
--Smoothies of all sorts
--Toasted Panini Sandwiches

"Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

Some thoughts on food:

1. It is impossible to be satisfied with food. The full feeling is a removal of the desire for food, not satisfaction in what was eating.

2. The pleasure is deep only in the context of eternal things.

3. Overindulgence leads to joylessness in eating. Eating, as all things, should be done to the glory of God with a sense of joy. There is nothing worse than mechanical, joyless eating which robs food of all its enjoyment.

4. Hence, the purpose of fasting is to declare first of all that we are not dependent, but that we enjoy food as a gift, in the context only of the giver.

5. Fasting is hard, because we are so used to responding dependently to our desires. We fulfill them mindlessly rather than freely.

6. Food should be enjoyed with freedom, as all things for the Christian.

7. Ultimately, food is utilized powerfully to teach us of God. It is no accident that what we are to do in remembrance of him is to eat and drink. Think of the saints of God who have been taught to depend on him through receiving food from his hand alone. Elijah and Moses come to mind.

Submission

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord, and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work.

Two verses, one in Ephesians. The other in I Thessalonians.

What shall we say about them?

First, that the grounds of our submission to others is our submission to Christ.

Second, that we should imitate Christ in this, that Christ fully submitted to the will of the Father. Do we count our own thoughts or our own interests as more valuable than others?

Third, that we should acknowledge that there are certain men who have been placed "over us in the Lord." This means that they have God-given authority over us, in so far as their authority is exercised within the will of God.

Fourth, that rebellion and rising up against God is a grievous offense. Respecting what authority is over is respecting God because of his work in placing that authority over us.

Fifth, that authority is good. God is not a God of disorder!

Starbucks Cups

are covered with nonsense (yet filled with goodness).

Listen to this "way I see it," aka, excuse for some ridiculous musician or artist to say something absurd. This is profundity in the post-modern world.

"Beware of turning into the enemy you most fear. All it takes is to lash out violently at someone who has done you some grievous harm, proclaiming that only your pain matters in this world. More than against that person's body, you will then, at that moment, be committing a crime against your own imagination."

This little ditty comes from Ariel Dorfman, described as a "novelist, playwright and essayist," and I believe the fellow at whose feet the bloody corpse of "Amadeus" can be laid.

How can one commit a crime against one's "imagination?" This is morals for a relativistic society. When you physically attack someone, more than hurting them, you're hurting yourself because you've failed to imagine yourself as them? This is incoherent at best, and staggeringly self-centered.

Many Thanks

1. To my teammates, who tenderly nursed me in my sickness. Krista gave me crackers, which I ate, ginger ale, which I drank, and Pepto-Bismol, which turned my poop black. No lie! Diana made me this soup that was nourishing. Robin was also concerned, and said encouraging things.

2. To my mom, who made me a cheesecake. Nice! You're the best mom.

3. To my dad, who delivered the cheesecake, and who gave his usual medical insight.

4. Reverse thank yous to David, whose comments on my last post were not very encouraging. Jerk!

Sickness

I don't get sick very often. In fact, the last time I can recall getting sick the way I am now was during my sophomore year of college, when I was sick for a solid four days, barely even able to roll out of bed to go to rehearsal across the street.

I think it is only fair that since I get sick so irregularly, when I do it should be correspondingly far more intense.

At any rate, the last three days have been pretty miserable. You know that first night of fever when you get all those weird semi-hallucinations? Sunday, I stood up all of three times! And I really, really thought I would be better by today. But I had another awful night last night.

What my sickness has really drove home, is how bad I am at rejoicing in my sufferings. I guess I would learn eventually to rest content under the hand of God.

Politics

Here is a question...what if we elected a robot?

Think about it for a second.

Now, what if we elected a robot, on accident? Would that be worse? I think it would be far worse. Because, if we elected a robot, we would know what we were getting.

Obama, they say, is the candidate of change. And Hilary is the candidate of smart change. McCain, by contrast, is the candidate of no change. Except that he would probably change before our eyes into a robot.

But Obama could also be the real robot. After all, he was born in Hawaii, the state closest to Japan (actually, maybe Alaska is closer). In Japan, robots are replacing poor people as the servant of choice.

Tell me something else. If Hilary was running against McCain, who would you vote for, if I asked you to base your decision solely on the one least likely to turn into a robot once he/she entered the White House? It is not an easy choice. Here is how I break them down.

1. Hilary is a woman. Woman have children, and Hilary has had one child, whose name is Chelsea. Now, I figure a robot, even a female robot, would not be able to reproduce, because robots are made out of metal, or sometimes plastic. Also, a female robot would have to find a male robot to reproduce with, and if they were all disguised as people, it would be probably hard for her to find a male robot without revealing, on accident, that she was a robot. Unless, all robots had some sort of code programmed in.

2. On the other hand, if you were going to create a robot in order to get them elected, you would probably pick a war hero robot rather than a lady, because the odds would be much greater. So it would really show the power of faith if Hilary did turn out to be a robot, because her makers would be making history in more way than one. She would be the first woman-looking creature to get elected, and the first robot to get elected. Unless of course there have been robots elected in the past that we do not know about.

So that's my breakdown on all robot-related political issues.

On a certain quote by Jim Eliot

In his diary Jim Eliot writes about a football game he went to...Oklahoma in the fifties. In typical style, Jim dismisses the game in a few sentences. His comments are full of light and conviction. "What would it be like if all these men were yelling with one voice for the return of Jesus?"

I am a Patriots fan.

I never had a team in high school. I was never really a Lions fan. Nogales is too far from Phoenix for me to become a Cardinals fan, if there is such a thing.

This was an issue for me in every sport. I loved sports, but had no teams to root for.

So when I went to Boston as a freshman, I decided that I would adopt the Patriots as my football team. My uncle was also a big Pats fan, and I figured we could watch some games together, maybe if I was enthusiastic enough he would let me go to a game with him (that never happened).

At the time, the Pats were coming of off a 5-11 season, and about four years of mediocrity under that college genius, Pete Carrol. Belichick's first season had been mediocre at best. And the Pats proceeded to drop their first few games, stumbling to a 0-4 record, before losing their biggest asset, star quarterback Drew Beldsoe. I watched 3 of the first 4 games (by myself, at a conservatory where few football fans existed), and did not regret my choice. I finally had a team to go up and down with (mostly down so far). I was stunned when Bledsoe was injured.

Now, if there are two things I hate in sports, it is bandwagon fans and dynasties. I have always hated teams like the Lakers and the Yankees. When I signed on to be a Pats fan, they were miserable, and looked likely to stay that way for a while.

Remember, they went into their first Super Bowl 14 point underdogs, and were 9-7 the next year, missing the playoffs. I watched nearly every game of those two seasons. They were hardly dominant.

Then, they lost the first game of the 2003 season 38-0. Super Bowl 36 seemed years in the past. Of course, three games later they started a win streak that would be the longest in NFL history. In the playoffs in 2005, they played in succession the number one offense and the number one defense in the league. The Colts they held to 3 points, and they put up 42 on the Steelers.

At any rate, it has been interesting being a Pats fan, moving from lovable underdogs to hated and feared champions.

But I am afraid it all has a sour taste in my mouth now. Did the Pats really cheat before Super Bowl 36? I sincerely hope not. And today's loss was humiliating, ruining the greatest regular season of all time.

It makes me wonder. Why am I sports fan?

All these men, giving glory to what is not God. Cheering, filling stadiums with cheers for mere men. The old Scottish preachers would never let men applaud them, saying that such honor belonged to God alone.