Is it all worked out?

Shortly after the University of North Alabama downsized me, BJ and I were offered a tag-team type of job selling collegiate furniture. It was an interesting job, to say the least. I didn’t really know the first thing about furniture, but we believe it was really BJ and her very long list of contacts they mostly wanted anyway. For the most part, I enjoyed it.

However, it was during this time that I spent a lot of time on the road traveling from University to University, in the tri-state area of Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas. My travel partner was one of the VPs of the company; a man younger than me who knew a lot about the furniture. As so much of the time was spent traveling, we spent a great deal of time in conversation. He was a devout member of the Church of Christ, and I was fresh off a religious conversion in 2000 (Southern Baptist for those of you with a scorecard).

Now I happen to be one of those who think that most of the folks who call themselves “Christian,” aren’t. [I think it was Billy Graham that said 80% of the people in churches are unsaved] And I don’t get too terribly worked up about the different flavors. Yeah, I think it’s silly the Church of Christ won’t have musical instruments in their churches (but they’ll turn that radio on quickly!), but I don’t think that’s a deal-breaker with God.

I DO think there are some deal-breakers; a core set of beliefs that all those under the “Christian” umbrella should believe. Things like Mary being a virgin, Jesus physically dying AND rising again, etc. Most of the “Christian” religions believe these things.

I don’t, however, think it really matters if a Christian is a pre-trib, post-trib, during-trib…I just don’t think it matters that much. One of the things that I have a tendency to believe that my fellow “Christians” don’t is the idea of predestination: that God picked out everyone who’s going to heaven in the beginning. Yes, I realize that most Southern Baptists don’t believe this—but I’m okay with that—it doesn’t fall on that list of “core” ideas.

But my Church of Christ employer couldn’t grasp the concept of my belief. It was just that he didn’t agree with it, it didn’t make sense to him how “I” could believe. His major concern, as I recall it, was why do Pre-destiners even bother with sharing the Word and attempting to spread the Gospel. If God has them all picked out, why waste my time talking about it.

To me, however, the answer is simple: Because God told us to do so. Just because I think God’s got it all worked out doesn’t mean I can simply stop doing what He says. It seemed—and still seems—like a no-brainer to me: God says it, so I do it (or at least attempt to do it)…pretty cut and dried.

He never did understand what I was trying to say…but we had many very good looooong conversations about it all!

I ψ#$€ shots

I absolutely, positively (shouldn’t it be “negatively” though?) do not like shots. Of any kind. You’ll note that I did not use the word “hate” as we try to convince our kids that it is such a harsh word that we have to be careful how we use it. So, since I can’t really tell my kids not to use it and then turn around and do it myself, let me just repeat for the record that I really, really, really dislike shots. A lot.

I can’t remember when my emotions for shots became so strong, but I do remember a near-encounter with fainting when I had to have my bloodwork done before BJ and I got married. BJ had already given—or had it drawn, or whatever you want to say—and I was doing so. The nurse was so worried about me—it seems I turned pale as a ghost—that she made me sit down. I don’t remember being pale, but I do remember breaking into a cold sweat.

I still don’t like them but I can tolerate them. I still get the cold sweats when I have to actually give blood or have a needle in my wrist or in the fold of my arm. Apparently, I do not have “good veins,” which loosely translates to my veins are small and they have to dig around to find them.

So I shouldn’t be too upset when my kids scream and holler about their shots.

When the kids were younger, we’d been having some serious “winter” issues with colds, runny noses, RSV and other such and the doctors recommended the flu shot. So we all got them and had a much different winter. Oh, we still fought with colds and such, but about 50% less than when we didn’t get them. So we’ve gotten them every year except the year they ran out.

But anyway, we were in the habit of going and this particular year—about 4 years ago—Brett got his shot first. He’d been doing pretty well and we managed to keep him distracted so that he didn’t even see the needle go in. But when he felt the pain—talk about screaming! BJ had been with Brittany and I had him in the hallway waiting for Brittany to get hers and trying to calm him. He was screaming—until he heard his sister screaming. And he just flat STOPPED! He wanted to see why his sister was screaming. From that point on, he was done screaming and crying (for that year, I mean). It was actually funny to watch him just stop!

However, Brittany had gotten big enough that BJ couldn’t really hold her and so we had to swap. I handed Brett off to her and proceeded to the shot room. Brittany was in such a hysterical state that the nurse had me actually lay down on top of her just to hold her still! The funny thing is that since she was crying so much she didn’t even realize when the nurse had done it and she was still screaming when the nurse told her she was done!

Yes, we’re going tomorrow to get our yearly flu shots…fun!

The great thing about science fiction

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I’m a big science fiction fan. And while I have nothing against it, I’ve never really had an appreciation for the “fantasy” side of things. Oh sure, there’ve been a few that I really enjoyed; Lord of the Rings is probably the highest on that list. I’ve just always been more in to aliens and spaceships than wizards and elves.

Often, fantasy and sci-fi are lumped together—probably because they’re that way in the major book chains. And while they aren’t necessarily siblings, sci-fi and comics are definitely in the same family. Cousins? Maybe even step-siblings. Thing is, they all draw the same sorts of readers. The stereotypical comic/sci-fi/fantasy reader is one that is a bit reclusive but well-read. And while there are a lot of readers of that sort, I think thanks to Star Trek and Star Wars, the genre has probably come a little more into the mainstream (even though I think comics are doing a reversal—but that’s another blog for another day) and is more widely accepted.

I may be a bit reclusive, but I don’t think anyone who knows me would put me in the “shy” category.

But I’ve just finished reading a collection of sci-fi short stories. I have a particular love for sci-fi of olden days. Sci-Fi today—for the most part—just doesn’t seem to have the stuff. Old sci-fi tended to be on the cutting edge of THINKING. These stories didn’t rely on Harlequin sex scenes or Richard Pryor style swearing…they put forth interesting ideas and neat reflections on society.

For instance, in 50 Short Science Fiction Tales, originally published in 1963, Isaac Asimov foresees homeschooling as is done today. His story, “The Fun They Had,” was written in 1951. Set in the future (the future of 1951, of course), two kids find an old book—one made of paper. The kids then discuss the stories grandpa told them about meeting in a classroom full of other students and lead by a human teacher. They then return to their “teacher,” which is essentially, a computer. While I don’t know it is this way exclusively, most homeschoolers I’ve talked to have their regular lessons from a cd or dvd in their computer.

There are certainly other examples of science fiction anticipating the future. I don’t want to say predicting, because I don’t think that’s the right term. Instead, I really think they imagined cool things—not just things that seemed impossible, but things that could happen. Everyone knows of the cool gadgets from The Jetsons cartoons, but I think one of the coolest has to be the video-phone. We can do that now via Skype.com—for free even!

But, the granddaddy idea of them all must be the cellphone. I say granddaddy because it seems everyone is using them today. But it all started with Captain Kirk!