Here is Peter and Anna ice skating.

I had an interesting thought today. C.S. Lewis was bold in making protagonists that you didn't always like. The movie makers were not as bold and caved in to making Susan more likable.

I find words interesting. I like reading them and studying them like a collection. Here are some for tonight: musteli, argent, tor, protempore, epaulet

Is there any use for an old Windows 95 era laptop with a docking station? It has a CD-Rom (not a DVD player) can read floppy disks, has speakers, RCA audio surround, and only a modem for internet. I doubt schools would take it because it is too old. I don't need a linux server. The only things I can think of are keyboarding practice for some of my students (although the keys are pretty sticky). But just maybe I can set it up as an overly elaborate amplifier. I cringe at the thought of the mess of wires that it would take, but I think it might work. Shudder.

The Sheep and the Goats

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Matthew 25:31-46 (NIV)

I have to wonder how much we are doing and how much more we ought to be doing. According to World Vision and 30 Hour Famine more than 26,000 kids under the age of 5 die every day from prevenable diseases. How much more could I be doing for Jesus and the least of these?

I just listened to a radio theater version of Shoemaker Martin. It is a very nice heart-warming story, but when night comes and I'm alone with my thoughts and prayers, I feel unsettled.

I just finished watching the movie Bend it Like Beckham, which was pretty mediocre. The only reason I mention it is that one of the deleted scenes was the most interesting part of the movie. One of the main characters is engaged and her future-in-laws break off the wedding. While she is upset and grieving, she says, "I should never have slept with him." Then she goes on to say they're probably out looking for a virigin for the guy to marry. It is interesting that in a movie that portrays homosexuality in a good light and lying to your parents as a normal (although not terribly effective) action. It is sad and interesting that they took out the one scene that had any real meaning in it.

In Other News...
We've been having freezing fog in the mornings. It does amazing things to trees and bushes... and windshields.

As a follow up to my resolution, I had a thought of keeping a record. It's one thing to look back on your year and evaluate it, but it's another to have a yearlong record of how you are doing month by month. A game plan or schedule, if you will. But how does one keep a record of generosity. Perhaps I can keep a tally of how many times I was generous to how many times I had the chance to be generous, but didn't take it. The thought kinda scares me, to see how selfish I really am.

But then there are the difficult situations when you don't know whether you should give or not. I went to Walmart earlier to return a watch Anna had bought that stopped working. Outside the parking lot (just beyond Walmart's property) there were two men out holding a sign that said they were homeless and needed help. Should I believe them, or should I not believe them? Does it matter that I saw the same two people at another store across town the night before? Or that they had winter coats and bdu's that were warmer than my own? I don't have an answer. If you're wondering what I did, I didn't help the men, but I donated the watch money to one of our missionary familes. A different time there was a guy begging like that and I asked him if he was willing to work. He said he was, so I took him to the church and gave him the money that I was making that day for some manual labor. Turns out he wasn't quite as out of gas as what he had originally been claiming (he had more than half a tank, which was more than I had) but he did work for a while so I bought him more gas.

Or here is another actual case: at church I had $100 bill in my wallet when they passed around a collection plate for community family assistance. I wanted to give, but $100 is a lot of money right now. My response was not to give it. Was it the right one? Right now I'm saying no.

So what is my score as of tonight? Including tithes and excluding the two homeless guys, I'm at at 4 smileys to 1 frown. I want to keep giving more and more, but then I wonder when do you run out of money for your own needs? I think the thing that makes it even more difficult is that I'm not on my own anymore. I would be ok if I gave extra money and then couldn't afford to pay for the internet or anything more than ramen. I think I might be ok with that. But Anna wouldn't be ok with that. She needs extra protein. She uses the internet every night after work. This is probably part of what Paul was talking about when he wished everyone was single so they could be devoted to ministry. I think I'll read Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. I picked it up somewhere a couple of years ago, but I've never actually read it. Now seems like a good time.

In Other News...
The Pretender has some of the most interesting character dynamics of any tv show I've seen.

I know it's a bit late, but I wonder about the inn keeper in Bethlehem. He (and his wife) are portrayed variously as being miserly or generous. What I wonder is how the story would have been different if he had been sacrificially generous. How would people for the last 2000 years have remembered him and been inspired if he had taken compassion and given Mary his bed? Admittedly, childbirth is a messy ordeal so a stable would make more sense from that standpoint, but imagine what an impact he would have had by giving Jesus his very best instead of his leftovers. That is my one resolution this year (not just for January) to be more generous.

I was thinking about Obama today. I remember one of my first college profs (PCC) said that he wished everyone would elect a black female lesbian hindu who was married to a bi male half-asian, half-hispanic muslim. Then after that we could get back to electing the person who was most suited for the presidency. I was thinking about that today, but I disagree with him. His idea is that the trouble is entitlement and once you satisfy that then it is done. Unfortunetly, that isn't how it works. There are always more 'firsts' that need to be met and once one has been met, it is still 'unfair' because they are still in the minority. It is sad that racism isn't dead in America. If it were, Obama wouldn't be hailed as America's first black president but rather as a possible reformer. What is sadder, is that certain groups keep racism alive for their own purposes- whether for political gain, news stories, financial reimbursement, or just to show how progressive they are. I hope to someday see a nation where race is a total non-issue.

I felt sad today because Anna was sick. I am sometimes surprised by how much it affects me when she isn't doing well. She stayed home from church and Bible study today because she didn't feel good. There were one or two times when I felt like crying a bit. I had some people in the 'prayer room' pray for us at church and I went into a little more detail with some of the people at small group. Rinda Scott offered to bring us dinner, which was a nice gesture, but I felt a little embarrased about. Its not like this is a tragic event where I'm incapable of taking care of her, but then I wonder if I didn't decline out of pride. All I know is that Rhea was right when she said that it was sometimes rough on me also. It might just be on her behalf, but it is simetimes rough. I need to share this with more people and I have slowly been talking with different trusted friends. All our immediate family knows and several of our friends. But its not really the kind of thing we want to send out in a newsletter.

Here's something I'm thinking about: can it be argued that all life is a psychological or philological construct if materialism is true. If so, either life does not exist or there is more than the material.
I need to go back and review what the five requirements for defining life are from a biological perspective (it's been a while since freshman biology). I only remember three of them. But at any rate, there is a big point in the evolution/creation debate about where life came from. It seems to me that one way to solve the issue is to claim that there is no life and that what we understand as life is simply a mental construct (in itself a complex chemical reaction, if there is such a thing as complexity) which describes a set of large scale chemical reactions. Of course, this is nonsense, but it brings up the question of what is life anyways. We can recognize it, but we cannot measure it. A live person and a dead person are chemically identical. The only way to tell the difference is the actions or lack of actions which are simply indicators, not components, of life.

I need to sleep. All my thoughts are jumbled, but I feel there is potential here.

In Other News...
I just visited a favorite comic site and found a comic from an idea that I had submitted a while ago. It's not terribly funny, but what makes it interesting is that when I submitted the idea I didn't put my name down and this comic is credited to someone named Andrew. I wonder if someone else had the same not very original idea I did and submitted it at just about the same time.