DISQUS

Absolutely hilarious! Tell me you made these up yourself. If so, count me very impressed. Especially with the pg-13 one.

Maybe what we have is a nuanced continuum and not an either or situation.

Best - Doing very good things for selfless reasons

Good - Doing good things with some thought to yourself because you're human and can't help it.

Still good but perhaps less deserving of praise - Doing good things, even very good things, but doing them in ways that also help and serve yourself.

Good but not deserving of any praise - doing a good thing completely out of self interest.

Bad - Doing a bad thing with good motives. Dangerous as hell.

Worst - doing bad things out of self interest.

Evil - doing bad and awful things to people with a sadistic self interest - taking pleasure in the suffering of others.

Please don't call yourself middle aged anymore. Because if you are, what am I? ;-)

I love your honesty. I always try to remember that the easiest cover for having no relationship with God and no idea how to have one is to claim a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and then stand there looking smug. "I said it. I called it. So I have it. So leave me along."

I'd much rather talk to someone who has a sense of the Holiness of God and is rightly afraid and uncertain.

We had a small faction of anti-Halloween folks at our church back in the mid 90s. None are still with us, and I try not to be too overly thankful about that. But in a conversation with some church leaders, one of the men - a man named Jerry - became passionate and animated. He pounded his fist on the table and said, "By Jove, we won't have any pagan celebrations and worship at our church."

And for once I not only thought of the best response, but was able to give it on the spot. I said, "Now see this is a good example of what I've been saying. Jerry just swore by the name Jove, a Roman god. But we all know that Jerry doesn't worship false gods. It was just an common expression and its original meaning isn't important in this context. That's what I think is going on with the kids and Halloween. They just like to dress up and get candy. They're not paying homage to Satan or pagan gods."

I wish I could say that my "brilliant" response won the day. I'm not even sure that Jerry knew what I was talking about. They remained solidly against Halloween while most of us were for it. That year we had a "Hallelujah" party at the church where the kids dressed up, played games, and got candy. (No use offending people for silly reasons. The kids didn't care what we called the party.) A few years later, after Jerry and friends had left for other reasons, we had a Halloween part where the kids dressed up, played games, and got candy.

I did not know that! thanks.

Sorry to hear about your Uncle and Aunt. Will they be able to return, or is their home gone?

Cool man, lots of comments. Lederhosen? Eh, why not.

I can't see religulous...however you spell it. Bill Maher is, in my opinion, mean. A very mean man. There is meanness in his humor and his attitude. It makes me feel bad. And I don't mind listening to honest opinions against the church. If they are funny and right, I'll even chuckle and say, "Mea Culpa." But Bill is just mean. I don't like that about him. I still watch his show sometimes, but I think given who is producing the movie, this is going to be ugly.

Seems like many great poets will shatter so many rules. What would editors have done with Emily Dickinson, for example? That's the part I've never understood. I suppose if the poet said, this is the meter and rhyme I want and you found that she missed it. Otherwise, what if she wants it kind of bumpy and halting sounding in parts?

My response is to become very childlike. "Why yes, I am one of the God bloggers." It's kind of a spiritual discipline to let people think what they will think until they get to know me, which they can choose to do or not.

Have a GREAT time man.

After this presidency, my standards are low. I'm looking for a president who won't take us to war for reasons that turn out to be wrong and then never admit it and keep us in the war anyway, at the cost of thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars. And one that will consider a national health care system.

So Obama can twitter, tweet, hoot, blog, whatever he wants.

I'm always touched by how questions like that can be answered exactly in the opposite way depending on who asks and what season of life we are in. There are seasons when you need to talk to God like God is your friend. And there are seasons where that sort of thing is not the way you need to see prayer. Perhaps you've been seeing God a little too much as your best friend. I like the interaction with you and your daughter. Very nice. Very authentic.

Oakridge video...not so much but that's just me. ;-)

Yeah, I love this clip. Perhaps the best one is the demilitarized zone in North Korea with no one dancing and just a guard there.

Randy, you have my sympathy. Editors! Took a great line and ruined it. Typical editor way of....

oh...

sorry Marcus. Present company excluded of course.

;-)

Well, I'm sure there is plenty wrong with you Marcus, but just run of the mill stuff I'm sure. For me, I could care less what the subject of that film is, that is INCREDIBLY COOL AND CREATIVE STUFF. I was totally hooked. Such a great gritty, dark, comic book world. How wonderful to be able to deliver that with a bunch of pieces of paper.

loved it.

Ha, very funny stuff. Too bad he felt he needed to explain the "All your barn are belong to us" quote. I feel, as a geek, that you never explain that one. Just let the insiders chuckle.

There's a cussing problem for Christian writers? I must not have gotten the memo. No WONDER my book was such a gigantic gzbr failure!

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It was so great having you there, man.

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pretty brave to get in the ring with Colbert.

Ouch. How old were you?

Connectedness. Yeah. You know, it seems that almost every job is made fuller and richer and more complete if we allow ourselves to become connected to those around us. It's easy to stay distant and safe.

Isn't that part of the deal with social media? The walls have come down and now we interact with the ones we read. And they listen to our feedback. Hurts sometimes. Also creates something worth doing.

Wow, what a cool thing to read. Whitman writing to me. Amazing.

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The editor comment - lol. That's the sort of thing we all just toss off. Kind of a conversational thing. But then it's online. At least it was your own comment.

Now I love the editors I work with (ahem), but I must say that there are different editorial philosophies. And you ought to agree on which one you are using. Are you writing as an essayist or a journalist? But in my experience, editors are almost always right within the boundaries of their philosophy. I love working with editors. It makes the final product better. And the work is all that matters.

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LOL

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