Jamaican me crazy, mon

Tonight my son Casey and I leave for the land of reggae, Red Stripe, and 100m sprinters. I'm speaking at the Jamaica Theological Seminary commencement ceremony on Saturday and at a church in Mandeville on Sunday.

My wife and I decided that I'd try to take one of the sons (not sexist: we have no daughters) along with me when I go on trips like these, so they can start to experience more of the world first-hand. This is an especially significant sacrifice for her this time as we'll be missing her birthday on Sunday. We'll try to bring back something good!

Tuesday's Blog on Blogging

It's Tuesday again. That means we step back from what we're doing here in Blogopolis and reflect on it.

Two weeks ago today the dialogue I posted (here) received lots of traffic and positive comments (more off the official site than on). Several of these insinuated that it was a nice piece of creative writing--probably conditioned to think in such ways from some familiarity with the genre over on ABUNCHALIES. However, the only accolades I should receive for the posting should fall along the following lines: "Your typing is very accurate." or "You really transcribed well!" For in truth, the dialogue was almost entirely exactly as it took place in real life. This might suggest one of a couple of things:

1. The Stimp household sounds like a lot of fun.
2. The best blog postings are really shows about nothing.

There have been several times since that posting that something very normal happens and one of us (in our best George Costanza accent) says, "There's a blog." I suppose that would get pretty old after a while.

I read about an Arabic guy out east somewhere who was arrested as a terrorist suspect; he was innocent, but to continue proving his innocence he has started logging everything that he does for the public to see. He keeps a gps on him transmitting to his website so you can always know where he is, he logs all of his financial transactions, etc. This is interesting for about 2 minutes.

In graduate school in an ethics class I remember a discussion about virtual reality machines and whether people would choose to hook themselves up completely to an alternative reality if given the chance (yes, philosophy graduate students really talk about such things). I argued that many would--after all, that's what TV and the lottery is to some extent--but only if it gave them a significantly different life than they currently had. The point was that people would prefer "real" life to virtual life if the quality of those lives was equal.

I guess the relevant point here is that blogging about nothing might be cute and funny once in a while, but no one really wants a steady diet of your normal life. Just give us the good stuff.

I'll Be Back

Good times had at faculty retreat, but it is always pretty draining. I'll see if I can back in the blogging rhythm here soon.

Keep in touch.

New Year

Those of us in the academic profession feel that new year's day should be sometime in late August. That is the new beginning for us, when all things are made fresh. I have a good deal of responsibility with the the prelude to the new year--think of it as organizing the New Year's Eve party.

We had our new faculty on campus today after a meal at the president's house Sunday night. Lots of fun. Tomorrow starts the full faculty retreat. I have a pretty big speech/talk/sermon (I'm never sure what to call them) to give on Wednesday night. The theme will be the purposes of God in our generation which might be served by the Christian college.

Across my banner at the top, the first descriptor is education. This blog has been rather thin on that topic so far. I'll see if I can't do something about that in the future. I need to dig in now to this speech/talk/sermon. If you're inclined to such things, I'd appreciate your prayers; if you're not inclined... fight the inclination and give it a try. I'm pretty sure it won't hurt you.

ND prayer service

So today I participated in the ecumenical prayer service at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of Notre Dame. It was a pretty awesome experience. For as much as I disagree with some elements of Catholicism, they sure know how to do pomp and circumstance.

It was the 150th anniversary of the Ft. Wayne - South Bend Diocese; the 25th year anniversary of Bishop D'Arcy becoming the bishop; his 50th anniversary of his becoming a priest, and his 75th birthday. The Basilica was packed and overflowing. The Archbishop from Indianapolis was there. President Jenkins of ND gave the opening remarks. I was in the processional that went to the platform with about 12 others (including some prominent pastors in the area, the Mayor of South Bend, a dean from Notre Dame).

During the intercessory prayer part of the service, we each had a line to pray, to which the audience responded in song, "Lord hear our prayer". My prayer/line was, "For people of all faiths, we pray that they would have freedom to worship according to the dictates of their conscience; this we humbly pray..."

Prayer

I finally finished Yancey's book. It is a masterful treatment of the subject.

A glimpse into my daytimer:

Saturday: Ecumencial Prayer Service at ND
Sunday: New Faculty Dinner
Monday: New Faculty Orientation
Tuesday-Thursday: Faculty Retreat

Blogging may be down the priority list for a week or so.

Keep in touch.

Claiborne

I mentioned I was a little disappointed with the seminars at Cornerstone this year (here). The first three I tried to go see, the speakers hadn't shown up yet. That kind of jaded me towards those speakers, and I didn't go back to try to see them later. I see now that was a mistake.

I get a podcast from Krista Tippett's "Speaking of Faith" radio show which airs on NPR (though not on our local NPR station--which is why I get the podcast). The show is very worthwhile listening, especially while out on long runs (very user-friendly instructions about how to subscribe to the podcast here). One of her recent shows was a conversation with Shane Claiborne, who was one of the late-comers to the Cornerstone seminar tents I missed. It was a pretty fascinating 53 minute conversation. I have a bit of a negative association with some of the celebrities in the emergent/missional movement for attitudinal reasons, but this guy is about as humble as they come. Very refreshing.

His words and life just drip with the Kingdom of God--a subject of near-future posts.

Tuesday's Blog on Blogging

A conversation between two sitting at the table and one in the adjacent room (only the names have been changed to protect the innocent):

Mr. Stimp: Do you have any ideas for my Tuesday's Blog on Blogging?

Stimp Jr: What is your Blog on Blogging about?

Mr. Stimp: It is where I write a blog entry about writing blogs. It is my most popular posting of the week, but I'm not sure what else to say about it.

Stimp Jr: Just say you don't know what else to say about it.

Mr. Stimp: I already did that once.

Mrs. Stimp: [overhearing, laughs from other room]

Mr. Stimp: [to other room]: What do you think?

Mrs. Stimp: I think it's funny.

Mr. Stimp: Can I quote you on that?

Mrs. Stimp: Yes.

Mr. Stimp: Are you serious?

Mrs. Stimp: Yes... but why would you want to?

Mr. Stimp: Because that would be funny.

Mrs. Stimp: I don't understand why anyone would want to read that I think it's funny or that I washed the car today or that I did anything else today. Why do we just put boring things out there for everyone to read? Seriously, what is the point?

Mr. Stimp: Ummm.... you should read Derry's Philosophy of Blogging. It has five parts. It's really quite good.

Mrs. Stimp: I don't have time to read Derry's five part philosophy of blogging. I have to go put the laundry away. [exits]

Mr. Stimp: This is going to make a cool blog entry for today.

Stimp Jr: Yah. Cool. I'm going to go take a shower. Can you cut my hair?

[Some minutes pass. Mr. and Mrs. Stimp meet at the bottom of the stairs.]

Mrs. Stimp: So I was thinking while putting the laundry away that maybe conceptual, academic types are more into blogging, because they spend their day immersing themselves in the realm of ideas and reading lots of words. But for someone like me who is busy doing things, if I'm going to make the effort to sit down and read something, I'd like for there to be some substance.

Mr. Stimp: Yes. I think you're right.

Mrs. Stimp: Do you know what I mean? I don't want to make the time to read a blog and then just hear that someone washed his dog today.

Mr. Stimp: This is great. I need to go downstairs and type it before I forget it.

Mrs. Stimp: I reserve the right to edit or veto.

Mr. Stimp: OK. You'll come out looking like the sane one.

Mrs. Stimp: I'd better because I might be the only one.

Stimp Jr: [from upstairs]: Dad, I'm ready for you to cut my hair.

Mr. Stimp: OK, just a minute, I need to go write my blog.

Wonder of Nature

Over the weekend we got in one last summer fling--camping with our friends the Meisters. We went down to The Shades State Park in west-central Indiana and were totally awed by nature.

Yes, it was hot--probably too hot for tent camping and camp fires--but we enjoyed both nonetheless. A canoe trip down Sugar Creek (anybody else read the Sugar Creek Gang books when they were kids? Same Sugar Creek?) was great fun. Hiking in canyons (the likes of which I didn't know Indiana had) was unbelievable. Then it was a perfect midnight to view the meteor showers. The two couples cozied up on a blanket (girls in the middle) and saw a bunch of shooting stars. Evidently the best one of the night occurred while I was rubbing my eyes.

Other memorable moments included the Lego candy found at Wilson's market on 31 where everyone waited while Chad and I went in search of a new wheel for the broken down trailor ("It's all part of the camping experience"); poison ivy everywhere; listening to Captain Picard read The Last Battle while on the road; Chad's new hat.

Knee Deep Comes Back to Life!

It is good to see Dean Linhart back on the blog-waves. His blog, Knee Deep in Life, came roaring back this week. I was especially thrilled to land a guest spot on the popular series, Tuesday's Travel Tips (airing on Wednesday this week because of a dispute over the international date line). Also of significant note is his feature of an up and coming Red Sox pitcher who came through Bethel--significant because the personal connection to Justin was strong enough to overcome franchise loyalty (Terry doesn't talk much about the '04 series)

The gray lining to this silver cloud is that it signals the end of summer... The swallows return to Capistrano, the French President winds up his New Hampshire vacation, the lemmings jump off the cliff, and Terry's back writing. You've got to take the bad with the good.

There's something very satisfying about the rhythms of life. Here's to hoping that you've got rhythm and good friends to share it with!

Lost Dogs Uprising

Here's a funny thing I stumbled upon out there on the worldwideweb: a massive criticism of my posting about my disappointment with the Cornerstone Lost Dogs concert.

You can find it here. This is page two of comments about the C-Stone show. A little ways down the page, someone puts a link to my disappointing blog entry, and that unleashes the dogs and their fury. I signed up to get on the message board (feeling a little like I was signing up for a Treky Convention) and left a post in my defense.

It's all good fun.

Philosophy of Religion

This book, co-edited by my friend Chad, was just released. It is a very significant volume, containing 64 brand new introductory essays on lots of topics in the Philosophy of Religion by such luminaries as John Hick, Bill Craig, Kai Nielsen, Merold Westphal, and other famous philosophers you've never heard of. It represents an enormous amount of work on Chad's part, and I'm very proud of him. It is only in hardback at the moment, and so carries a hefty $160 price tag from the publisher. Amazon will have it shortly for $100. They expect a paperback in a few months (and if sales are strong, perhaps a movie adaptation thereafter).



To celebrate, I'm taking him to see the Bourne Ultimatum tonight. Nothing says "congratulations on your new academic work in philosophy of religion" better than going to an espionage thriller blockbuster movie! (Showplace 16 at 9:50 in case you'd like to join us.)

Tuesday's Blog on Blogging

So my plea for a carefully articulated philosophy of blogging has been heard! There's a very nice series going on over on Derry Prenkert's blog about this topic, beginning with this one. I expect that in the future, serious philosophy departments around the country will have specialists in the philosophy of blogging who point back to the Prenkert Series as the seminal work in the field. Seriously, it is worthwhile for both readers and writers of blogs to ponder what it is they're doing and why they're doing it.

But then, you probably know all about that series already, because it appears that nearly everyone who reads this blog is somehow connected to Derry's. It seems to be the case that Derry is a kind of godfather of blogging related to the web of linked sites in which we live and move and have our digital being: a good word from him and you'll get visitors; his shunning of your site would be its death knell. I appreciate the chance to ride his blogging coat tails.


Interesting name, Derry... the only other I know of is the guitar player and lead singer of my favorite band of all time: The Choir. His name is Derry Daugherty. I think his real name is Derald. Unfortunate name, Derald...

I was thinking about Frank Peretti's novels (This Present Darkness, etc.) for some reason today (I think when mulling over the reality that there is a spiritual realm) and got chuckling a bit when I realized the eerie similarity with the movie, Monsters, Inc.

In the latter, the monsters in their alternate reality have to live on the power of screams that are collected from the regular world; in the former, the combatants in the spiritual warfare that is going on behind the scenes are buoyed and strengthened by the prayers that are offered in the regular world.

Something seems a little funny about that... We certainly need a way of articulating that reality of a spiritual realm and the fact that we can influence what is going on there (and vice versa); but we need to be careful not to reduce prayer to screams that can be collected and burned for fuel.

Mindless Musing

Sorry things have been a little slow on Stump Speeches this week. I suppose we could make a ratio of what you have burning in your gut to say to how busy you are. Let's call it the blog-o index Then the higher your blog-o index on a particular day, the more likely you are to post an entry blog. My blog-o index has been pretty low lately.

I see, though, that with this posting I've just provided a counter-example to my own theory. Because I actually have quite a bit to do at the moment, and this isn't exactly a message burning in my gut...

I guess we could save the theory by adding another factor that takes into account the propensity we have for avoiding work by tricking ourselves into believing that we're doing something important by the mere fact of fingers striking keys... evidently I'm scoring pretty high on that count at the moment.

I feel a little bit like that song on the new Relient K disc that goes like this: "I've just wasted ten seconds of your life."