The absurdity of the Christmas Story

The Sunday before Christmas, my pastor at my church gave a sermon on the "scandalous" story of God stepping into the human story through Jesus. It seemed to me that he was trying to cast the story, as is often is the case, as one of unbelievable risk and vulnerability on God's part. God becomes one of us through Jesus and experiences life through our eyes. It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it: an omniscient, omnipotent God humbling himself as a human being, subject to his environment and those around him. Subject to the frailty of the human body itself. But for some reason, I found the sermon unconvincing. A friend later asked me about it, and I could only honestly respond that it had not had much of an impact on me. I could understand the concept, but it was not really moving my heart and soul. And this frustrated me, because I wanted to be in awe of the Christmas story - of God stepping into human form, not as a glorified ruler, not in the glory He is due, but born to teenagers in the back room of a motel in some backwater town of the Roman Empire.

I was thinking through all of this a couple days later, and for some reason I recalled a quote from Dave Matthews of all people. It's at the beginning of the song "Oh" from the album Live at Radio City. He mentions the song is about his grandfather, who fought in WWII in Africa against Rommel, who was "no pushover." And then, right before beginning the opening chords, he almost inexplicably says, "There's evil people. But they still came weeping out of somebody's vagina." It's a hilarious moment, but I think there is a lot packed into what Dave is saying. Even powerful, history-changing people were born as a helpless infant to a woman, covered in baby goo, and completely reliant on others to provide for their survival. Each and every one of us has a humble start in this world.

And for some reason, this quote struck me because it finally captured for me the absurdity of the whole Christmas story. I started laughing out loud when it clicked. The Creator of everything came weeping out of somebody's vagina. And that, at least to me, represents the absurdity and the scandal of the Christmas story.

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Now playing: Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds - Oh
via FoxyTunes

New musak

I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again. One of the things I've discovered in the past few years that I absolutely love is discovering new artists. It's such an awesome high having my mind blown by something I've never heard or seen before. Things I couldn't even imagine, and yet resonate so strongly with my very being.

The flavor for this month is Greg Laswell. There is something very unique about his sound, but I can't quite put my finger on it. His latest album, Three Flights from Alto Nido, has quickly risen to become one of my favorite albums. I think you will like it, and I think your future wife might really like it. We'll see.

Laswell has an EP of Covers, and on it is this absolutely amazing cover of Kate Bush's This Woman's Work. Not only does it sound beautiful, but the lyrics are gorgeous and moving. I'll leave you with my favorite lines:

I should be crying but I just can't let it show,
I should be hoping but I can't stop thinking

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Now playing: Greg Laswell - This Woman's Work
via FoxyTunes

Rocketman

I've been sick for the past several weeks. I'm pretty sure I had the swine flu (my doctor suspected so), and then a sinus infection hitched a ride on the back end. I was pretty sick for around 3 weeks, and while I'd been on a few runs and a ride or two, I had felt pretty slow and sluggish.

I've finally been feeling much better the last several days, so I decided to go for a run Monday evening. As soon as I was out the door, I realized that this run was going to be different. For the first time in a while, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. For the first several minutes, I actually almost felt like I was flying. I was running very hard - I think my heart rate was averaging around 180 - but it felt amazing because I hadn't been able to run like that for what felt like ages. My legs were just turning over so quickly and rhythmically, and my breathe, though hard, was well-paced and full. The sensation was almost one of having had someone strap small rockets to my shoes.

And the best part was I actually got a runners high during the run. I've written about these before. They come on unpredictably, and they usually leave me smiling and dancing around my living room for an hour or so post-run. It really is an intense high, but I don't know any strategy to bring them on - sometimes it just happens and you count your blessings. I've gone months without one.

The whole evening was quite an experience. If how I felt during that run is how cyclists and other endurance athletes feel when they take EPO, I can now understand the strong allure of taking it to get that feeling of weightlessness, like you are a superman. Once tasted, it must be a hard temptation to resist.

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Now playing: Greg Laswell - And Then You
via FoxyTunes

I am a...

And I think I know why. I realized today this may be the first real full-blown crush I've had since I was 22. I forgot how being around that person can turn your mind into jelly. Chicken-flavored jelly.

Yuck!

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Now playing: Herbie Hancock - Stitched Up (feat. John Mayer)
via FoxyTunes

The fan

I've had the fan that currently sits in my bedroom since my freshman year of college. It's a simple black stand up-fan that I got at Wal-Mart back in (gulp) 2000. It even still has the tacky orange sticker on it for college storage. When I first purchased it, it was for the purpose of keeping me cool on those early September days and nights when the lack of air-conditioning in the dorms was all too obvious. For the past few years, I've mostly used it to create white noise at night to drown out street noise, so it's run for most nights the past 5 years.

A couple months ago, it started having trouble getting started when I first turned it on. It would wind up slowly and build up to speed. More recently, it hasn't been able to start at all - I can hear the motor whining as it tries to get the blades moving. So what was my solution to this problem? Buy a new Wal-Mart fan? Maybe a fancy one with a remote control? Nope. I took the cage off the front of the fan and started to manually spin the fan, similar to the way pilots started those old WWII planes (like in the movies) by spinning the prop. The surprising thing was it actually worked! Now most nights I have to jump-start my fan; it's really just become part of the routine.

This is indicative of a wider idiosyncrasy of mine. I think it points to one of the reasons I'm such a terribly slow and indecisive shopper, and why I like nice things. As the fan illustrates, once I get something, I tend to stick with it till it's dead. Dead as a doornail. If I'm going to get something that I'm going to have and use for a long time, I want it to meet my needs and be high quality. I don't want to be stuck with something that doesn't quite live up to what I use it for and that is poorly made because the likelihood is that it's going to be around for a long while.

I'm debating whether to get a new fan. If I placed a bet on it, I'd wait till the thing won't start regardless of how hard I yank on it.

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Now playing: 505 Greg Laswell-Days Go On
via FoxyTunes

Holiday party!

My company holiday party is this Saturday evening, and I am super stoked. We always seem to throw an awesome party in a terrific venue - this year it is being held in the Franklin Institute in downtown Philadelphia. Here is a picture of what our dining area will look like. Check out Benjamin Franklin presiding over us.

I had hoped to take a date this year, but alas, things did not go as expected (which was expected, if that's not a contradiction). I even bothered to request a guest invitation this year. After all, this year will be my fifth holiday party. I've only had a date to one, and I was really sick so she went without me! (She was a former employee, so it's not as weird as it sounds; but she also used to like me, so maybe it is still kinda strange, or ironic, or something). Oh well, maybe next year. I'm still going to have a blast. Maybe it's better I don't have a date anyway. I have a feeling the evening will end with me, a little tipsy on a dance floor, trying to show everyone my Footloose moves.

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Now playing: Greg Laswell - Comes and Goes
via FoxyTunes

Number 28

I turn 28 in about 30 minutes. Well, technically I was born at 12:05 PM, but I guess we usually celebrate the date, not the time. I've realized that I'm a little disappointed I'm turning 28. But not in any really important way. Prepare yourself - I'm a bit sad to be turning 28 because 27 is such a cool number from a math perspective. I mean, it's a cube after all! Do you realize that I won't be a cube again until I turn 64?! And that will be my last one, unless they somehow figure out how to dramatically extend our lives. Farewell, 27. You've been an interesting year full of change. 2 more years till the big 3-0!

Eggo shortage

Apparently some flooding and equipment malfunctions at the Eggo plant has resulted in an Eggo shortage through the first half of next year. Terrifying, I know! Thankfully, I've been stocking up on Eggo waffles and storing them in my surplus Navy freezer over the past few years. Who's crazy now, huh!?