Category: Spiritual Journey

Movies / Spiritual Journey

Blind-sided

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In Sandra Bullock’s new movie, The Blind Side, her character Leigh Anne Touhy has a scene where she has just fixed up the guest bedroom for Michael Oher, the 17-year old black young man her family has taken in off the street. There is just a hint of a look of self-satisfaction on her face — she’s doing a “good deed.” As Michael looks around the room, slack-jawed, he says, “I never had one before.”

“A bedroom of your own?” Leigh Anne asks, expecting a “yes,” thus confirming her good deed.

“A bed,” Michael replies, and you see in her face that Leigh Anne’s world has just been turned upside down.

Movies / Spiritual Journey

Unoriginal Screenplay

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My wife and I went to see Seven Pounds a couple of weeks ago. If you haven’t seen it and plan to, stop reading now and go see it. No, seriously stop reading now. You need to go into this movie blind. (Frankly, you should never watch another trailer again as long as you live if you really want to enjoy movies, but this particular movie even more so.)

If you haven’t seen it and don’t plan to, stop reading now and go see it anyway. Forget the critics, IMDB and I never lie.

Most of the bad reviews the movie has received is due to it’s being viewed as a Sixth Sense kind of movie, with a big “tell” at the end, except it isn’t that big and so a few people with high expectations give it grief.
Spiritual Journey

The Best Day of the Year

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Remember when you were a small child and your mom said you were going to get to go to Six Flags/Disneyland/whatever in a few days? Remember how you couldn’t sleep and you kept asking “Is it today? Is it today?” and it never was, or at least seemed like it never was? Remember when the day finally got there you almost couldn’t stay in your skin you were so excited?

I still get that way. Except, instead of Six Flags ($45 so I can go spend the day in 105 degrees and eat bad, expensive food? Ummm, let me think about it, NO), it’s The Summit.

Spiritual Journey

Blurred Vision

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Ten years ago we had the opportunity to go to England, and, since it was a potentially once-in-a-lifetime trip, I decided to buy a “real” camera. At the time, “real” was a medium-priced Canon film SLR and a couple of decent lenses. The trip was a lot of fun, I took a lot of pictures, and discovered that I liked photography. I wasn’t very good at it, but I liked it.

In the intervening years I’ve upgraded to a digital SLR and a long zoom digicam. I still like to take pictures, but I’m still not very good at it, mostly because I don’t take enough pictures.

Spiritual Journey

Overweight Suitcases

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I don’t travel much, but I travel enough to know that checking luggage is a bad thing. To paraphrase Darrell Royal, there are three things that happen when you check luggage, and two of them are bad. I’ve gone on a week-long trip many times with only a single carry-on suitcase (and my laptop), and I would do it every time. If I traveled alone.

But, of course, I don’t always travel alone. I’m blessed to have a lovely wife to accompany me on vacations, the occasional business trip, mission trips, etc. When we travel together, checking luggage is a necessity.

Spiritual Journey

Art Imitates Life

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The Dallas Summer Musicals had several shows this year my wife and I wanted to see, so we bought season tickets. Our daughter and son-in-law ended up going with us as well; we enjoyed Wicked, Chicago, and, of course, Spamalot among others, all at 8:00pm on Sunday evening.

This evening was Lion King, the spectacularly costumed musical version of the Disney movie. It also happened to be opening weekend of the Texas State Fair, so we arrived extra early, around an hour before showtime. Since we were so early, we decided to go and look at a few trucks and the new Honda’s at the Auto Show pavilion.