The Living Room

(Yes, I just randomly changed the template for the heck of it. It was time.)

I hope this is obvious: Things you’re thankful for.

1. Public transport. Capital Metro, I love you, even though you’re slow and crowded. But you’re free.
2. My parents–the ones who let me have a shot at physical life and a better one in America, the ones who adopted and raised and have loved me and let me do laundry at their house and eat their food, the numerous people who have acted as spiritual mothers and fathers.
3. The opportunity to become thoroughly over-educated.
4. The privilege of praying for other people.
5. My brother and sister-in-law are going to get counseling together and not split up. This is an incredible thing (and if you prayed, thanks).
6. All the good people I’ve gotten to know in Austin. Y’all rock.
7. My relatively cushy library job.
8. Tea. Yum.
9. The intellectual freedom we have in the United States.
10. That there’s some hope for the job market to open up a little bit by the time I graduate…
11. Friends who feel more like family.
12. That the Maker of all things saw fit to create sound, and music.
13. That the Maker of sound sees fit to sing over me every single day and that He gives me voice to sing back.

The Muppets do “Bohemian Rhapsody”:

Sorry that it sort of disappeared for a while. This week’s rather appropriate-feeling theme, courtesy of Teacher Dave: Moving on. Interpret as you will.

1. Switchfoot, “I Dare You to Move”
2. The All-American Rejects, “Move Along”
3. Bob Dylan, “Maggie’s Farm”
4. Jamie Liddell, “Another Day”
5. U2, “Kite”
6. Justin Timberlake, “What Goes Around…Comes Around”
7. Radiohead, “Exit Music (For a Film)”
8. Elton John, “My Father’s Gun”
9. The Beatles, “Hey Jude”
10. Punch Brothers, “Nothing, Then”
11. Derek Webb, “Nothing is Ever Enough”
12. The Frames, “Rent Day Blues”
13. Frou Frou, “Let Go”
14. The Normals, “The Best I Can”
15. Next to Normal Cast, “Light”

I was going to put up some silly posts today, but I just can’t. My friend Steph, frequently mentioned and frequent commenter, lost her dad on Sunday afternoon to cancer. He is with Jesus. Meanwhile, the rest of us mourn. Pray for her and her family, if you think of it, please.

This is the great thing, though, about the Body of Christ: No one has to carry their sorrow alone.

When angels dream of space and time
And look into that sacred rhyme
That descends into earthly climes
And makes flesh out of stone hearts

It would not do for human race
To disavow that sovereign grace
That unveiled heaven’s holy face
And covers us with mercy

me: is it weird that i keep thinking of these little two-stanza poems?
me: for some reason i’ve had some randomly pop into my head out of nowhere lately.
Teacher Dave: hm
TD: weird.
TD: you were always more of a formal poet than i was.
me: heh
TD: i’m a freeverse rebel, livin’ by my own rules.
me: heh
me: i haven’t written in form in a while.
me: need to remedy that.
TD: DON’T FENCE ME IN, CHIEF!
me: haha
TD: *drives off on a Harley*
me: *”born to run” starts playing*
TD: TOTALLY
me: that’s it.
me: i’m going to write a villanelle about bruce springsteen
TD: hahahahahaha
TD: you are such a dork.
TD: it’s cute, but you’re a dork.
me: i know 
TD: blinding me with your library science.
me: heh
me: i pretty much embraced my dorkiness the moment i applied to college.
TD: your FB profile comment should be “Library-science is a compound verb now.”
me: heh
me: compound verb?
TD: (i know it doesn’t work grammatically, but no one else would know.)
TD: (shut up)
TD: hyphenated
TD: a hyphenated verb
me: you make it sound like a way to get killed in a teen girl squad episode.
TD: i don’t care. shutup.
me: heh
me: “LIBRARY-SCIENCED!”
me: “dewey decimaled!”
me: *large pile of books falls on cheerleader*
TD: “Filed in triplicate’d!”
me: haha
me: card cataloged!
TD: i’ve been adding ‘d! to random things.
TD: Babystroller’d!
TD: Curse you, Punk’d!, for your inescapable cultural ubiquity!!!
TD: Now THAT’s a band name.
TD: for a college band of philosophy majors
me: what, inescapable cultural ubiquity?
TD: yup
TD: with tee-shirts that say ICU
me: that was going to be the title of my next book of cyberpunk poetry, actually
TD: there you go.
TD: Title’d!

if you were to woo me
with e.e. cummings
a dylan song
a dozen daisies
or a small kiss on the cheek

i don’t think i’d mind
not so much the methods
as the actor
not so much how you did
as that you did it at all

You know the drill. By the way, if you’ve never participated in this, I’d like to use this opportunity to invite you to do so. Put it on shuffle, give us the first 20 that play, no matter how embarrassing…

1. St. Jacob’s Chamber Choir, “Introit” (oddly appropriate)
2. Vigilantes of Love, “River of Love” (…man, I *love* this song)
3. Kosmos Express, “Just Say It”
4. The Secret Machines, “Blue Jay Way”
5. Eva Cassidy, “Way Beyond the Blue”
6. Jason Lytle, “Brand New Sun”
7. Elton John, “My Father’s Gun”
8. Ceili Rain, “Everybody Clap For Everybody”
9. Iron & Wine, “Such Great Heights”
10. Andrew Osenga, “The Broadway Bartender”
11. Rich Mullins, “Hard”
12. Vampire Weekend, “A-Punk”
13. Adele, “Cold Shoulder”
14. U2, “Heartland”
15. Josh Ritter, “Come and Find Me”
16. Shane & Shane, “Be Near (piano version)”
17. The Khrusty Brothers, “Just Opened Up”
18. Delirious?, “Revival Town”
19. Shaded Red, “Revolution”
20. Ceili Rain, “Bliss That I’m Swimmin’ In”

Hey, it’s back. This week: 13 random things to be found in your house/apartment.

1. I use a power strip to plug all my TV-related things into (DVD player, converter box, etc.). Saves me money on my electric bill, for serious.

2. Blue and white polka-dot pajama pants.

3. A travel iPod charger, which comes in handy more often than one would think.

4. Actually, I left my phone there this morning (whoops).

5. There’s a bag of clementines on my dining room table (mmm).

6. More scarves than are probably necessary for someone who lives in central Texas.

7. A project I’m making for my mom and dad for Christmas (muaha).

8. A couple of CDs I’ve been meaning to send to my friend Erica (they’re coming soon!).

9. A jewelry box full of earrings that are missing their partners (uh-oh).

10. Two guitar exercise books that I almost never use, but should…

11. A blank application to Barnes and Noble that I’ve yet to actually do anything with…

12. Three library books (The Stand, The Death of Adam, Getting Things Done).

13. The liner notes to Derek Webb’s Stockholm Syndrome (which I have not stopped listening to since I got in the mail on Monday).

(I’m really only blogging this because I don’t want to read any more articles about information management. *head explodes* But no, it’s great.)

Great theology is always a kind of giant and intricate poetry, like epic or saga. It is written for those who know the tale already, the urgent messages and dying words, and who attend to its retelling with a special alertness, because the story has a claim on them and they on it. Theology is also close to the spoken voice. It evokes sermon, sacrament, and liturgy, and, of course, Scripture itself, with all its echoes of song and legend and prayer. It earns its authority by winning assent and recognition, in the manner of poetry but with the difference that the assent seems to be ultimate truth, however oblique or fragmentary the suggestion of it. (Marilynne Robinson, The Death of Adam, p. 117)