Thoughts and Musings on Faith, Music, Family, Life

No problem with U2's "No Line....."

Okay, so let's acknowledge the obvious - yes, I got a copy of U2's new CD before it came out. What was I supposed to do? If you've been a huge fan your entire adult life (and then some) and a good friend offers you a copy, are you going to turn it down?  Besides, I'm still buying the CD when it's released this Tuesday.  Because it's the right thing to do.  And it'll have lots of cool artwork.

So here's what you're going to do on March 3rd - you, too, are going to go to your nearest record store, or Target-type place, or log on to itunes or Amazon.com.  And you're going to purchase No Line On The Horizon, because you really should get this album sooner rather than later.  It's that simple. 

And I know what you're thinking - this is just another U2 fanatic who thinks anything these guys put out is automatic gold.  Not so.  The fanatic part; yes, I confess, as I've alluded to in a previous blog.  But I was never a huge fan of Rattle and Hum, and it took me years to warm up to Pop.  I'm a fan to be sure, but I'm still a discerning music critic (or, as my wife likes to claim, a "music snob").

The bottom line is that both the fan and discerning music critic in me thinks that NLOTH is a solid album.  Rolling Stone's review gave it five stars (which translates to "a classic" on their grading scale) and calls it the best since Achtung Baby.  And that's saying a lot, since their most recent two, All That You Can't Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, weren't exactly shabby.  I guess when you work for four years on something it's gonna be good (well, on second thought, there was Chinese Democracy, and Guns 'N Roses spent thirteen on that).  But it continues to amaze me how these four Irish guys who've been playing music since the late 70's - Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton - persist in making solid music that not only speaks to the current generation of music listeners but is timeless in its own right.  And the fact that they delve into issues of great cultural/political/spiritual significance is icing on the cake.

NLOTH opens with the title track, which was released a few weeks ago via Spin's website, the second song released off the record.  It's interesting that the mix on Spin's site is different from the album - I like the album version better.  It's a somewhat strange song to begin with, but it still gets you in the mood.

Then you come to the second track, Magnificent.  And this is when you realize you're in for something special.  It has a rather lengthy beginning for the first 44 seconds, but you know it's building up to something.  You're slightly thrown off when this very 80's synthesizer pops in, and then the 45th second hits and you're in full-force with a classic Edge guitar riff.  And it feels like home.  The song lasts for over five minutes, but you honestly can't tell.  It's a beautiful tune that in my humble opinion is the album's best.  It's also one of the more overtly spiritual.  I've always loved the fact that Bono never gets preachy but engages that intersection of faith and life in a poetic, thoughtful and honest manner.  I know U2 would never want a song of theirs to be considered in the "praise & worship" category, but this one comes pretty close in a U2 sort of way.  It's hard not to raise your hands to the heavens on this one.

Moment of Surrender follows, all 7:24 of it.  Yeah, strange place for a song of that length to be (more on that later).  This one has a bluesy-feel to it, and Bono is belting out the verses in a raspy sort of voice that strikes an emotive chord.  This one feels more like its length than the one before it, but you still soak up every second.

Next comes Unknown Caller, a great tune that has an incredibly catchy chorus.  Bono and the guys chant the lyrics in almost cadence-like fashion and it works perfectly.  Edge gets to shine on this song, with a lead that hints throughout the early parts of the track and then kicks in full-force at the conclusion.  This is probably the closest thing he has to a true "signature solo" on the record, but the fact that you don't really notice him at any one place is kind of a compliment - he's playing excellent throughout.  Oh, and it clocks in at six minutes, but again - it doesn't seem that long at all.

The album's two fun songs come right in the middle, the poppy I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight and the now-familiar Get On Your Boots.  I've had trouble trying to categorize the latter - at points it smacks of something out of a "beach-bingo" type movie, until the screaming guitar reminds you it's a rock song.  I was kind of puzzled why this track comes in the middle of the album and not at the beginning, as it would make a great lead-off.  Then again, after listening through the album a second time I realize it's actually placed very well (Rolling Stone described it as a kind of "halftime" break - and I think a great beginning to a vinyl's second side).  As an aside, the boys did a great job opening up the Grammys with this a few weeks back.  Let's take a look-see, shall we?

U2 - Get On Your Boots (Live @ Grammy Awards 2009)
by andybe29

Nice....

The album moves into its second half.  Stand Up Comedy is a great rockin' tune with a classic line demonstrating that even Bono doesn't take himself seriously all the time, and neither should we: Stand up to rock stars, Napoleon is in high heels // Be careful of small men with big ideas.  Here's to humility...sort of.  FEZ-Being Born is to NLOTH what 4th of July was to The Unforgettable Fire, although at a faster tempo - an ethereal instrumental that winds up morphing into a full-fledged tune.  Which brings up an interesting point - there are a lot of Unforgettable Fire moments on this album.  Not imitations, but hints of an earlier time.  Kind of cool.

White As Snow follows, and I must confess - I could've done without this track (see, I can be objective).  A little too folksy for my tastes - and I have nothing against folk music at all.  I just don't care to hear U2 do it.  Maybe it'll grow on me.  Breathe comes next, a tune with a good beat and some of Bono's "stream-of-consciousness" lyrics.  And, perhaps, a direct Biblical reference: Nine 0 nine, St John Divine, on the line, my pulse is fine.  John 9:9?  Maybe I'm reading too much into it.  Look it up and decide for yourself.

Cedars of Lebanon wraps things up in much the same way that Mothers of the Disappeared did for The Joshua Tree and The Wanderer for Zooropa.  It also contains the album's single profanity, which means I cannot play the album in its entirety for my two boys, thus furthering their U2 indoctrination.  Oh well.

Whew.  You listen to all eleven tracks and you're ready to go at it again.  And you realize a few things.  First, you realize how deep this album is - not just in message or mission, but in musicality.  This is rich stuff with lots of texture to it.  I like the comment one music buff made about NLOTH on his blog, the Lefsetz Letter - he observed that it's a great 70's album.  And in case you're wondering, he meant it as a compliment.  That was back in the day when every song on an album mattered; when records were more than a vehicle for one or two radio-friendly tunes accompanied by a bunch of filler.  It's obvious that the boys from Ireland put a lot of time, thought, and work into this project from start to finish. 

My only complaint - and it's an incredibly small one - is the song order.  There's still that part of me that wants Get On Your Boots to lead things off (a.k.a. Vertigo on the last album).  And I can't find any rationale for having a 7+ minute song bat third - it would've made more sense to have Moment of Surrender come much later.  Still, I imagine the lineup will make more sense as I continue to listen to it (these guys and producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois have a pretty good track record when it comes to making albums, after all).

The long and short of it, folks, is that this is an excellent album that you'll want to add to your collection as soon as possible.  It's yet another great musical venture from a timeless band.  I mean, it's just amazing to think that I've been listening to these guys since the days I took algebra, got braces on, went to my first homecoming dance.  That dates me, I know, and I don't care.  It's incredibly rare to have music and musicians who stand the test of time like that.  Here's hoping they have many more years in them.  I, for one, will enjoy every minute of the ride.

One last thing, and then I'll shut up. Here are some links to U2-type stuff that might pique your interest:

http://www.u2.com - official band website.  Become a member and you get cool stuff and first dibs on concert tickets when they come your way (which will be this summer, so I hear).

http://atu2.com - every band has numerous unofficial sites that covers news, etc. etc.  This is by far the best.

http://u2log.com/ - the official U2 blog.

U2 Sermons - this is a cool site, based on a book that came out a few years ago titled Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching The U2 Catalog.  It looks at U2's music through a theological/biblical lens. 

U2 biblical references - along the same lines, this link (off the atu2.com site) chronicles the numerous biblical references in U2's songs.

These are just a few.  There are many, many more.  If you find others worthy of mention, please add them in the comments below!

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Okay, sorry, one last thing.  Sweet video of U2 performing "Magnificent" on a rooftop concert last week for BBC.  I'm done now.  For real.

Facebook, Twitter, websites, blogs, and ministry in the 21st century

As I'm typing this, there are some fence guys in our backyard adding on yet another dog pen.  This one is for Rocky, who I mentioned in a previous post.  He's been with us for close to a month now.  The fact that we're making a pen for him means his stay with us has probably surpassed the "temporary" category.  This brings the number of rescue dogs in our possession to three.  Truly there is no more room at the inn.  :)

The real reason I'm making this post, though, is to share this article with you.  It's written by Lynette Hawkins, founder of Awesome Insight, a strategic communications resource of Beyond Marketing Group, Inc.  Lynette is also a Presbyterian elder and has a blog that focuses on issues of ministry and church communications in the 21st century.  In her article for The Presbyterian Outlook she looks at things like Facebook, Twitter, church website and pastor's blogs and how these enhance communication among church members, particularly as a way to build relationships.  It's a good article for those who may not already be familiar with this sort of thing, and I'd highly recommend it to you.

Lynette and I met over Facebook - hows' that for the ministry in the 21st century!  Lynette paid me and the church I serve a great compliment when she said was "inspired" to write this article after looking at our church's website, this blog and my sermon blog, among others.  It pleases me that someone "in the know" thinks that we're on the right track, doing the kinds of things that a number of other churches are also doing.  Recently our church created a Facebook group and started a church Google calendar that all members can access (it's conveniently displayed on the home page of our church website).  We also began posting the audio of our worship services at the website that you can either listen to in streaming audio or download as an mp3, utilizing a free service from Sermons.net.  Certainly these tools of the internet age will never replace traditional ways of doing ministry.  But folks like Lynette are wise to help us see that it can only enhance what we already do.

Do check out her article and leave a comment there if you wish.  Now I must go check on the dog pen, and the dog that will soon be in it.

Hoping for failure?

Alrighty folks, get ready for the righteous indignation voice to surface again....

This afternoon after work I went to Wal-Mart to buy insulin syringes for our diabetic cat (yep, you heard right.  Four dogs now, one hamster, and two cats, one of which is diabetic.  Craziness).  I'm standing in a rather long line passing the time when I overhear this conversation directly behind me.  A couple of guys talking about the economy and how bad it is, and about the fact that our President will be speaking later tonight on national television, and about how he's not doing enough to fix things and that they never liked him from the start.  And then these four words pass from his lips: I hope he fails.

Seriously?  I mean, by now I think most of us have heard how uber-conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh made the same comment a few weeks ago.  Ridiculous, of course - but that's kind of what you expect out of the guy.  Not really mainstream thought.  Heck, even Pat Robertson called him out.

But this was some guy in the pharmacy line at Wal-Mart - a normal citizen like you and me.  He had no audience to pander to; no radio demographic to please.  He was just having a conversation with someone next to him and expressed his desire for our president to fail.  And his sentiments have been echoed by others.

Wow.  Really?  I struggle to find the logic here.  I fully understand that many fine citizens of this country (some of whom are reading this blog) do not agree with our president.  They find themselves at odds with him over his economic prescriptions, or his stance on hot-topic social issues, or his move to end the Iraq war or close Guantanamo Bay, or his party affiliation.  I respect people who respectfully disagree with elected officials and work within the system to make their voices heard (how they vote, communicating with their representatives, etc).  That's a huge part of what makes this country great - that we can disagree and still be "one nation under God, indivisible...." 

But why, in a unified nation, would anyone want their president to screw up?  Surely this is not what the founding fathers envisioned.  It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: if the president fails, we fail.  There's a lot riding on our president's shoulders these days.  He knows it.  We know it.  His decisions regarding the bailout, the stimulus package, his cabinet appointments - everything - is critical for a country that day by day gets deeper and deeper into crisis.  If our president fails, more people will lose their jobs.  If our president fails, more companies will have to shut their doors.  If our president fails, more people will lose their retirement in a diving stock market.  Why, then, would anyone want the man to not do well?

I hope he fails.  This is like someone wanting a surgeon to mess up in the middle of open-heart surgery because he beat you out of a residency.  Or a teacher you didn't like in high school suddenly turning lousy and crippling his students as they head into their EOG's.  It makes no sense.  It was one thing to hope that a presidential candidate last fall would fail to do well in a debate, or fail to win a primary.  But that's all in the past.  With all that's at stake in the here and now, does anyone really want failure?

I almost said something to the guy in Wal-Mart - but that was when the lady at the counter handed me my syringes, and I remembered that there was a pot of my wife's chicken/bacon/bean soup warming up on the stove at home.  So I let my stomach set the agenda rather than my convictions.  Some things are better left unsaid.  Until you get home and can blog about them. ;)

Looking through the nursery glass

Yesterday I was at Forsyth Hospital in Winston-Salem visiting a church member.  Afterwards I decided to swing by the nursery and check out the newborn infants.  Even though the hospital has recently undergone some renovation and they moved the nursery, it still felt familiar.  Forsyth is where my wife and I brought our two boys into the world, six and four years ago (we'll, she's the one who really brought them into the world.  I just had a front-row seat).

I watch through the glass at the mass of nurses huddled around this little life who was just minutes old.  He is so small - gosh, were ours really that size, ever?  He has that shrill newborn scream that is so beautiful when you first here it, and then so painful when you hear it a week later at home at 3 in the morning.

I remember when that little infant on the other side of the glass was ours.  Both our boys were late-night babies, so it had been a long day (obviously moreso for the Mrs.)  I remember looking through that glass at my son, knowing that dozens of others had done the exact same thing that day.  And yet at that moment I felt as if the world had stopped still and everything was focused on this almost nine pounds of sheer joy and wonder.  I was oblivious to the other parents, doctors and nurses and general hospital busy-ness going on around me.  As far as I was concerned, it was just me and my boy.

I'm standing there on the other side of that nursery glass, all of these memories flooding back.  One of the nurses inside turns to the lady next to me and motions to the baby as if to say, Is this yours?  She can't hear her, but she responds out loud anyway: Yes, I'm his aunt.  She says it with a tremendous amount of pride in her voice.  She looks at me and smiles and we have a brief conversation that would've never taken place had there not been a baby on the other side of the glass.  I congratulate her and tell her both of my boys were born here.  I ask her how his mom is doing.  She tells me she's tired, exhausted but very, very happy.  I nod in affirmation and wish her well.

I begin making my way to the car - it's a long walk to the deck, but at least it's all indoors, which is different than it was before when the only parking was outside.  I remember parking in that parking lot twice before with a wife in labor, walking briskly into the hospital and realizing that when we emerged from it a few days later our lives would be radically changed. And then later, there's no stranger sensation than pulling your car in front of the hospital and putting your newborn child in the car seat for the first time.  You know you've got an incredible network of people around you - the return visit a week later, the new pediatrician, grandparents and friends.  You're not doing this alone.  But still it is an exciting, humbling and terrifying feeling all at once.  And it's only the beginning of the journey.

I get in my car and put the keys in the ignition when my mind takes me on one last trip down memory lane.  It's September 11, 2002, two days after the birth of our first son.  It's the day we're taking him home.  The discharge papers are in process and all we're waiting for is the final green light.  My wife is packing up some things in the room and I'm in the recliner chair holding our two-day old son and watching TV.  It's around 9am, roughly the time a year before when two planes flew into the Twin Towers of New York City.  The only thing on TV is coverage of the memorial service at the crash site. The mental and emotional wounds from the attacks are still very fresh in all of our minds; so horrible all the senseless death generated out of someone else's hate.  I'm watching this, all the while holding our newborn.  Such a powerful contrast; the mourning of life lost and the celebrating of new life just a few hours away from being taken home and into the world.

Whenever the cynic in me wants to rear its ugly head - that we can't overcome hate, that the threat of death will overcome the power of life - I think back to that Wednesday morning in 2002 and have my faith restored.  And that's why I enjoy paying a visit to the hospital nursery whenever I have a free moment or two.  Looking through that glass reminds me of where it all begins, why we're here, and what it all means.

Jump on board The Welcome Wagon (Presbyterian minister included)

Ahh.  I'm at Panera Bread in Winston-Salem and am relishing in contentment.  For some reason I feel so at home in this type of setting - the combination of coffee, laptop, wireless internet, itunes, earphones.  There are lots of people here and they're moving about and talking; but even the group of elderly ladies right across from me discussing in loud voices their recent health ailments (in great detail, I might add) doesn't bother me.  In fact, if anything the constant motion helps me focus.  Go figure.

So I tend to get a lot of things done.  Just put the finishing touches on the first draft of Sunday's sermon and am prepping for a couple of meetings with church elders who work just around the corner from here.  In the meantime I'm listening to an album that I think you should know about.  Good music, and an interesting back story to go with it.  The Welcome Wagon, they are called.  They are the husband and wife team of Vito and Monique Aiuto.  Technically the Reverend Vito Aiuto, to be exact.  And he's not just any pastor, either.  A Presbyterian minister.  Now you understand my interest!

I first learned about The Welcome Wagon from Paste Magazine via a gift subscription from friend and fellow Mayberry musician Jerry Chapman.  Incidentally, I'd highly recommend Paste to any music fans out there - a wonderful way to keep in touch with what's happening in all aspects of music, film, books, etc.  Each issue comes with a CD sampler of the latest indie music; the kind of good stuff you won't hear on the radio.  Well worth the subscription.

Back to the music.  The Aiutos started singing together in the privacy of their living room with no ambitions of it going outisde those four walls.  They had a particular drawing to old church hymns, and they made use of a hymn book with lyrics and guitar chords.  The "problem" (if you want to call it that) is that neither of them had any real musical training, so they couldn't read the notes.  While normally this would be a hindrance - not knowing the hymn's melody - it wasn't for them.  They just made up their own.

Somehow this couple got hooked up with singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens, an eclectic musician in his own right.  The end result is Welcome to the Welcome Wagon, which the Aiutos performed (along with some others) and Stevens produced and arranged.  The result is intriguing to say the least.  On one level the music is simple enough that it's easy to imagine you're sitting in the Aiuto's living room listening to them sing some simple hymns.  There's nothing fancy about either Vito's guitar skills or their vocals - it's all pretty straightforward.

But then there's this entirely different dimension to the album's tracks which is undoubtedly Stevens' influence - the brass section, the honky-tonk piano, the slide guitar, the percussion, and the group of people singing (I hesitate to call it a choir because they don't really sing in parts and they literally sound like a group of people lounging around on couches singing along).

So it's this odd mix of simple and dynamic that makes for an incredibly intriguing sound. Take the album's opening track, Up on a Mountain.  It begins with a simple acoustic lick, followed by Monique's vocals.  There's a little bit of piano in there as well, but nothing that jumps out at you.  And then the second chorus rolls around and you're introduced to that group-of-people singing a counter-melody, followed by these wonderful ascending/descending guitar arpeggios that seem to cascade down from the heavens and back up.  What comes next?  Why, trombone, of course; what would you expect?  Best listened to with headphones on.  And you're hooked.

The rest of the tracks don't deviate much from this format, but each song still has its own unique flavor.  There's even a Smith's tune thrown in for good measure (Half a Person, if you're wondering).  And by the time you finish listening to Deep Were His Wounds at the end of the album, you realize that what you've just heard is not as much the product of a duo as it is a trio.  I don't know if Stevens actually plays on the tracks, but his influence is so intertwined with the songs' arrangements and production that it's hard to imagine them without it.  It's actually pretty cool when that sort of thing happens.

You don't have to like old hymns to appreciate the musicality of this record.  Or Presbyterian ministers, for that matter.  But it doesn't hurt.  You can find The Welcome Wagon on itunes or emusic.com.  Give it a listen and see if it's your thing.  I'm betting that after a few times around you'll conclude that it is.

The Other Miracle on the Hudson

Right now I'm giving an exam in my college New Testament class.  Lots of scribbling sounds.  So it's just me and my laptop, and an opportunity to tell you what I've been thinking about a lot this week.

I've been thinking about the "Miracle on the Hudson."  You know the story.  Back in mid-January, a US Airways flight was struck by birds soon after taking off from LaGuardia Airport and lost its engines.  Attempts to return to LaGuardia or land in a nearby airport in New Jersey proved futile.  So the pilot managed to "land" the plane in the Hudson River, and all 155 passengers and crew were safely evacuated.  Not one life was lost.

It's an amazing story.  And the fact is that the American public simply cannot get enough of it.  I googled the words "miracle" and "hudson" and it brought up over 5,300,000 entries.  Didn't get a chance to check all of them, but I think it'd be same to assume that the majority of them are about the above.

At the center of this whole phenomenon is a guy named Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot of Flight 1549 who performed the landing.  I'm no pilot (although I'd like to take flying lessons one day), so I don't know the intricacies of what this guy does for a living.  Still, I know enough to know that what he did was amazing.  Last week they released the audio of his conversation with LaGuardia Airport as the plane was going down.  The guy was incredibly cool - you would've thought he was just asking for directions to the nearest McDonalds or something. 

So it probably comes as no surprise that Sullenberger has since been hailed as a hero - he and his crew.  In the span of a few weeks he has embarked on a whirlwind tour of sorts - every media outlet, all the morning news shows, and even a special recognition at the Super Bowl.  And throughout it all his "cool" has prevailed.  He seems to take it in stride, not really seeking it but content to go along for the ride.  And amazingly, he actually continues to second-guess himself, assuming there was something else he could've done to make it back to land.  Again, I'm no pilot, but I think the guy did pretty darn good with the little he had.

What has struck me about all of this - other than the fact that it happened - is how our country has become absorbed by this "miracle."  Weeks later, it is still getting press time - now some of the passengers are making the rounds.  It just seems kind of odd because normally a story like this would have a week's life span in our fast-paced, "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately" news cycle.  So why is it still the talk of the nation?

Certainly a lot of it rests on the shoulders of Sullenberger and how essentially 154 people owe their lives to him.  But I think there's more to it.  I think the reason we can't let this story go is because it's a good story.  Plain and simple.  It's an uplifting story about something that could've turned out a lot worse.  In short, it's good news.

And Lord knows we sure can use some good news these days, can't we?  We've got an economy that's hanging on by a thread.  We've got hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs each month.  We live in a world that seems almost addicted to fear and war.  And each of us has our litany of personal struggles, whether it's trying to make ends meet or caring for ailing parents or raising our kids to be decent members of society in the midst of all of this.

It doesn't matter what end of the tax bracket you're on, or your nationality, or your lot in life.  You hear the tale of Flight 1549 and find yourself breathing a huge sigh of relief.  And not just for the lives that were miraculously saved - but for you too.  Because it's refreshing to hear good news when all we get most of the time is bad.  It's good to be reminded that, even in the midst of all the stuff life can throw at us, amazing things still can happen. And that's why I think there is another miracle that took place besides the lives that were saved.  It's the miracle that happens when we are inspired to recognize the good in this world, even when so much in that same world suggests otherwise.

Eventually, of course, this story will die down and drift off the news cycle.  Sullenberger will go back to flying his planes, and I'm betting he'll spend next year's Super Bowl watching it in the comforts of his living room.  Birds will go back to flying over the Hudson (although we hope not as much in huge flocks near airports).  And you and me?  We'll turn on our TV sets or log onto the news websites or open the newspaper and have more bad news crammed down our throats.

But there will be more stories like this that will pop up from time to time and remind us that all is not lost.  And it doesn't matter how big a deal they'll make of it and how many times a hero is interviewed - I for one won't get tired of it.  Good news is important to cling to in times like ours.

The Facebook Friend Question

Speaking of Facebook:

Like many of you I've caught the Facebook craze.  If you haven't you should seriously consider it.  I'm on it for some period of time just about every day.  I love seeing what pops up on the "news feed" - what folks are up to, any pictures that people have posted.  I've started maybe a half-dozen groups on Facebook, some with pretty good response.

And I "friend" friends - either folks who have been on it a while or newbies.  There's something about connecting with friends on Facebook that's refreshing.  It's not like Myspace, where you get random friend requests or just sort of surf the Myspace wave and try to friend anyone you come upon.  That always annoyed me, for some reason.  There's an understanding on Facebook that you only "friend" people you actually know.  And I like that.

Which brings me to my question.  As of this blog entry I have 815 Facebook friends.  815!  Seriously!?  I mean, do I actually even know 815 people?  I had never really thought about it, to be honest, until I did the "Facebook Friend wheel."  It's a cool Facebook app that takes all your friends and puts them on the perimeter of a circle.  Lines run inside the circle showing how your friends are connected to each other.  Mine's to the right - if nothing else, it's pretty colorful.  And a lot of names.

So a month or so ago I posted this question on my Facebook status: is it possible to have more Facebook friends than actual real friends?  Responses covered the spectrum.  Some said, yes, it is indeed possible.  Others were more skeptical - why would you approve a friend you don't even know?  One person got philosophical and wondered if maybe the answer lies in how one defines a "friend."

To a degree I guess they're all right.  I have Facebook friends who I went to high school with and haven't communicated with since graduation.  Are they "friends" in the classic sense of the word?  Probably not.  But they were once - and that's part of the cool thing about Facebook.  It connects you not only with people you see every day, but people you've lost touch with.  And perhaps all you do with those folks is catch up with some wall comments or messaging, and then respond to the random status change that comes on your news feed.  It's not much, but it's more than it was before.

I actually like this.  I've learned that one of my high school friends now stars on Broadway, while another was a missionary in Greece.  A college fraternity brother is a fellow animal lover, and a seminary colleague shares my passion for good music.  These are things that, without Facebook, I would've never known.  In fact, I probably would've lost all contact with them.

To some this may seem silly; the whole "Facebook friends" thing reminding them of something along the lines of this cartoon:

Me, I'll just be thankful for all of my friends - whether they're on Facebook or not.

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UPDATE: Four days after making this post, I accepted a friend request for someone I absolutely do not know. Never met him before.  He's in his 50's and is a reporter/anchor for a radio station out in Portland, OR.  His name?  Steve Lindsley.  Yep, down to the last letter.  We're rare, I tell ya.  Couldn't resist.

25 Things

I'm a big Facebook fan.  I like the comment a friend of mine wrote on the "wall" of a mutual friend who recently joined Facebook - something like, Welcome to Facebook.  Now prepare for your day to be, in essence, one hour shorter.  True, how true.

If you're on Facebook you're probably familiar with the "25 Things About Me" craze that's making its way around.  The general gist is this - you post a "note" on your Facebook profile with 25 random things about you, and "tag" 25 other people to do the same thing.  I've been tagged a number of times but have resisted.  And then, after the cajoling of one of our church youth, I decided to play along.  And much to my surprise I found it to be a fun little exercise. 

So I thought I'd share these 25 things with the blogosphere - here they are. Whether you're on Facebook or not, consider doing the same thing.  I think you'll find it kind of cool.

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25 THINGS

1 - I'm not sure why I'm doing this. I'm also not sure why you're reading this, but thanks.
2 - Other than a couple of years in graduate school, I've lived all 40 years of my life in the Old North State.
3 - Oh, I did live in Hiroshima, Japan for four months in the fall of 1990, teaching English and learning enough Japanese to freak out Japanese people who didn't think I knew Japanese.
4- I have a younger brother, Brad, who is taller than me. But then again, a lot of people are. And I'm cool with that.
5 - I'm a fan of free wireless internet.
6 - I don't know that my two boys will ever be able to know how much I love them.
7 - I'm into reading Paste Magazine these days. It's got lots of great stuff about music, film, books. You should read it too.
8 - My wife has to be the most patient person on the planet to put up with me. And I love her lots for it. And for many other reasons too.
9 - I play music - solo, with Acoustic Blend, and a band called the Mediocre Bad Guys. It adds balance to my life.
10 - One time at a gig we were advertised as "Acoustic Bland." Seriously. Hardly anyone showed. Wonder why.
11 - I think I'm addicted to multitasking. I need to stop that.
12 - I was bitten by a shark when I was twelve. I started a Facebook group for people bitten by sharks, and so far only one other dude has joined besides me.
13 - I'm pastor of a church in Mount Airy and am truly blessed to work with such great members and great staff. It thrills me that they truly are seeking God's mission & vision.
14 - I love yardwork - it's my form of therapy. Cheaper than the real thing, and I can listen to my ipod while I do it.
15 - My family has three dogs.....waitaminute, it's four. At least for the moment. And two cats. And a hamster.
16 - I cried my eyes out when I saw "Marley and Me" with the family. My soft spot.
17 - I always dreamed of playing football as.....get this....a punter. Who dreams of being a punter?
18 - I was in Beijing, China with a Wake Forest group when the Tiananmen Square massacre happened.  We got out about an hour before the airport closed for a week.  Close call.
19 - My grandfather (Dad's dad) died when he fell off Mt. LeConte while hiking. I wrote a song about it.
20 - Speaking of which, I've put out two Cds of original music, but the last one was last century. Still waiting for the songwriting muse to come back around.
21 - A new routine I've taken on is getting up early on weekday mornings, before everyone else, having a bowl of cereal and reading the paper in silence. Aaaah.
22 - I feel at peace the most when I'm in the mountains or at the beach. Montreat and standing on the beach gazing into the horizon are my sanctuaries.
23 - I really don't have many major regrets, or complaints, about my life thus far.
24 - I think that sermons are a three-way conversation between a pastor, the congregation, and God. I like it when all three are communicating well together.
25 - I live by grace, each moment of every day. And I'm still learning exactly what that means. The joy of the journey.

Meet "Rocky" (and the others)

Blog world, meet Rocky.  Rocky, meet the blog world.

This little (well, not so little) fella literally walked into the Lindsley's life this past Friday, as so many dogs tend to do with us. The youngest and I had just pulled in the driveway from preschool and gotten out of the car when this boxer wanders into our yard. Rather skittish at first, but he warmed up quick. No collar of any sort, no tags.  Of course we could've done what every other sane person would've done and just let him keep walking.  But we didn't.  The eldest and I took him for a walk in the neighborhood and asked a few folks if they recognized him - no one did.  We did have one suggest checking with a family in the neighborhood behind ours, as they thought they'd seen him tied up in a front yard over there. Saturday morning, the boys and I checked it out, but it was a different boxer.  So for the time being he's with us.

He's an awesome dog, I gotta say.  Very friendly and loving.  Strong, too - he'll inadvertently knock you over if you haven't braced yourself.  He seems to be in good health, other than a lot of scars on his front legs and some on his neck.  He obviously was in some kind of fight, and perhaps even in a dog fighting group (which is why I'm hesitant to put signs up around town).

Like I said, stray dogs tend to find the Lindsleys.  Other than Sam, our senior citizen golden retriever who stays indoors, all our dogs have been strays or rescues.  I got Bailey back in 1998 from a rescue organization in Lexington, NC and we enjoyed ten years together.  Around 2000 Bandit came to us from the same group.  They picked him up after getting a frantic phone call from a lady who said her husband had shot him.  Apparently he owned a farm and kept Bandit chained on a short run and fed him whenever he felt like it - which amounted to roughly a few times a month.  One day he found Bandit eating part of one of his goats (you would too, if you hadn't eaten in weeks), so he shot him in the leg.  That's when his wife called the rescue folks and begged them to take the dog.  She also told them she was going to leave her husband too - I don't want nobody who shoots a helpless dog to be around my daughter.  Can't say I blame her.  We initially took Bandit as a "foster dog" because the rescue organization was running out of space and we had some room at the time.  That was nine years and one move ago.

Lady found us on Halloween night, 2007.  The Lindsleys were all costumed up and heading over to a friend's house for a little Halloween party when I noticed our car had a flat, just around the corner from our house.  So I pulled over to check it out; and as I did I was suddenly aware of this little presence beside me.   I turned around to see a tiny Jack Russel Terrier somethingoranother just a few feet away, very interested in what I was doing.  No collar, of course.  We took her home, intending to try and find its owner.  We never did.  Two weeks later we added a second pen onto our fenced-in backyard, right next to Bandit's.  Lady is constantly in motion and eats and poops more than any dog ten times her size, and I'm not kidding.  She also yips more often than she keeps her mouth shut.  But she's part of the family.

There have been others we've found (or who have found us) who we were able to return to their homes.  We did have one, Pup, who died suddenly after about a month with us.  We think she had some terminal illness and her owners got rid of her to avoid having to deal with it.  She's buried in the wooded area of our backyard, and the boys still go back there to say hi to her from time to time.

So now we have Rocky, and we're smitten.  Well, I am.  He is an awesome dog.  We went to the pet store today.  He has a food bowl now, as well as a plastic dog house that's probably too small for him but will suffice if it rains (or, heaven forbid, ever snows here).  Oh, and a collar too - brand new.  Yep, new collar.  I imagine we'll check the papers over the next few days to see if anyone reports a missing boxer.  And if any of my local Mayberry blog readers have some leads, do let me know.  It's not like we need another animal (to go with the three dogs we already have, and two cats, and a hamster).  But I'll be honest with you - if Rocky's temporary stay becomes more permanent, I won't be crushed.

POSTSCRIPT - I should probably mention that Bandit and Lady are available for adoption if anyone in the area is looking for a good dog (I'd offer Rocky but we probably ought to try and find his real owners first, if he has any).  Heads up: we'll be picky as to who takes these dogs, so don't be offended if we ask a lot of questions.  If you're seriously interested go to the "FPC Mount Airy" link on the left of this blog under "Steve on the web," click on "Contact Us" and then scroll down to my pic and send an email.  Thanks.