Church

Romans 16:16

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(Where has the time gone? Where have I gone? I know, I know, I’ve been a poor caretaker of this web site. Let’s see if I can do better.)

The church we are a part of celebrated their 20th anniversary a couple of weeks ago, and as part of that celebration produced a video about the first 20 years. Almost nine minutes in, Tim Harris talks about greeting visitors at the church’s first building, and says, “I didn’t do it to the degree of Loyd…”. We did meet Tim and Cindy very early on in that building, but nobody did (or does) it to the “degree of Loyd.”

We had been members of a church for half-a-lifetime (35 years for me, 20 for my wife) when God called us somewhere else.

Humor

A Movie Star and a Florist Go to a Funeral…

VinceLeave a comment

Rorshach tests are supposed to tell us all kinds of things about our psychological condition. I find what we think is funny does a much better job.

I thought about this recently as I was reading Lauren Bacall’s first autobiography. (We’ve been watching the B&B movies, I’ve had the book on the shelf for a while, what are you gonna do?) Bogart had died, they’d just had the funeral, Bacall had told everyone to make contributions to the American Cancer Society in lieu of flowers. A large group of friends came back to her house after the funeral, and the telegrams are pouring in.

Generosity

Totally (In)Secure

VinceLeave a comment

They did a study at the Chronicle of Philanthropy years ago where they asked people who inherited money, “What amount of money would you need to feel totally secure?” And every single one of them, no matter what they had, named a number that was roughly twice what they inherited. So that’s what you need to know about money, right? If that is your primary measure of success or value in life, then good luck with that, because it will never feel good.

From an interesting interview with a Disney heir.

I generally don’t like to quote from people talking about “studies” unless I’ve seen the original study.

Current Events / Photography

Prevaricating Photographs

VinceLeave a comment

Lots of ink and electrons have been spilt over the perfect storm of confrontations in D.C. last week. I’m not going to spill any more over the confrontation itself; instead, I want to talk, and demonstrate, how our beliefs about pictures lead to the absurdity of the last few days.

Two of the biggest clichés attached to pictures are:

  • A picture is worth a thousand words, and
  • Pictures don’t lie.