I have launched a side-blog that is called Very Short Stories.  These are twitter length short stories and I will probably update them a bit more regularly than this blog.

So without further ado here is the first entry: The Curve

I bought a cheap LED reading light so I thought it would be fun to combing it with photobooth on my mac for some high contrast pics.

I just Brady Bunched myself!

I am currently in the basement of my home, watching a ladybug traversing the drop ceiling.  I wonder if it has any idea where it is?  Does it know the difference between inside and outside?  Does it know that it is actually upside down?  The other curious thing is that it was actually here last night, it hasn't moved even two-feet from where it was then.  What is it eating?  What is it drinking?  Is it letting out tiny ladybug poops that are so tiny that you would never see them with your naked eye?

I sound a bit like my four year old son with all of those questions.  In the end though, i think it is wonderfully marvelous that we have  been given such inquisitive minds.  If we were all satisfied with things just the way they are then there is a good chance we would not be where we are today.  Look at all of the animals of the world, only a very few ask questions of their surroundings.  Men, apes, dolphins all have shown capacity to process and ask questions of their surroundings.  It is a rare thing in nature to question what you have in front of you and to try and alter the outcome of a situation.

My friendly ladybug doesn't ask any questions, it just is.  My ape and dolphin friends ask a limited set of questions pertinent to food sources and mating but only humans question their own existence and its meaning.  We are the only creatures given the additional dimension of faith.  Faith is an interesting part of our beingness as humans.  There are those that claim to have no faith, I would argue they have placed their faith in the statement that they have no faith.  Others place their faith in themselves, in others, or in God.

Faith isn't something you are ever given more of, or have taken away.  It is rather an awareness of our own internal allegiance to this, that or the other.  Faith is a compass.  The needle of faith always points towards God, but we can manipulate the field around the magnet to get it to point this way or that.  Like my ladybug we wander the ceiling thinking it's the floor or the wall.  We think we are outside when we are really inside.  If you want your faith to point true north then you must ask God to remove the conflicting magnets that have caused you to pursue a life lived in a false direction and restore the original orientation of the compass.

I pray today that my compass should be aligned correctly, that God would strip away those false magnets that drag the compass of my faith into leading me away from God.

I am too quick in wanting to be 'right' and often act foolishly to get there.   I don't like authority, and I must learn submission.  Lord forgive me, and help me overcome.  Amen.  

People were everywhere, scrambling and clawing through baskets of beaten and torn boxes.  Scanners were flying, doing price-checks as the employees attempted to create some sense of order out of the chaos.  You might think humans and sharks have little in common, but you have not experienced the event that is Black Friday.  Normal women and men turn into ravenous beasts, discounts on big-ticket items as the scent of blood coursing through their being.

In years past my wife and I ventured out early on this most sacred of consumer holidays to claim some holiday item, or sale need.  This year we are visiting family in Quincy, Illinois and as we only took one car with three adults and two kids there is little room to haul back a 50 inch plasma screen, even if we had the desire to do it.  We did venture out around 10 o'clock and wandered briefly around Walmart where found a few small toys for the kids, not enough to require the dreaded strapping of items to the roof.

As we were leaving a man and wife exited the building with a new 47 inch Sony Bravia HD television and a 32 inch (also Sony Bravia).  I am making no judgments, for all I know they could have been saving for a while and couldn't pass up the chance to spend their money wisely, or they could have payed for it all on their 26% APR credit card.  I have been on both ends of the spectrum there.  But I do comment on the mentality of a culture in which we need not just one television of gratuitous size, but an even smaller version of the same in order to fulfill our 'needs'.

Sure, the fact that someone buys a TV means that Walmart employees a few people and it means Sony employees some people.  There are taxes generated that employ a few more people.  By the end of the day many people are given a job for producing items that serve no ultimate value other than simply providing the owner with a gateway to view whatever content they want.

So, if the production of the TV creates jobs, and people feel they have made a good purchase and are entertained, then what is the harm?  This is a powerful argument, and not one I feel I really need or want to confront.  I want to simply ask a question.  Is it really needed?  Why do we feel the need to entertain ourselves with ever bigger and more expensive items?  What is at the core human level that creates and cultivates those wants?  What problems are we trying to solve with our consumption?  Are we purchasing 50 inch plasma TV's because we know it keeps others employed and able to support themselves and their families; or are our motives much more selfish?

I tend to get a one-track mind; my wife chides me (rightly) to quit stomping my feet.  While I tend to look at things objectively, when I want something it is often hard for me to look objectively at the purchase.  Just some of my thoughts on this Black Friday.

Consume wisely my friends.