Return to Blogging

A dear friend sent me a short email today. In it she asked me to post more blog entries. She was particularly interested in what I am reading these days. There are two books that have my attention today.

 I am reading Janet Evanovich's Two For The Dough(out on DVD May 15). This is part of a series of books featuring bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. Each book in the series has a number in the title. Others in the series are One For The Money, Three To Get Deadly, Four To Score, High Five, Hot Six, Seven Up and Hard Eight. There are 18 in the Plum series...so far. I enjoy, immensely, reading outside the field of theology, as "secular" writers often do a better job at developing a character than preachers do.

The other book that has my attention is Jonah Lehrer's Imagine. The subtitle is How Creativity Works. Lehrer presents a fresh perspective on how we generate new ideas. He writes,
The first thing this new perspective makes clear is that the standard definition of creativity is completely wrong. Ever since the ancient Greeks, people have assumed that the imagination is separate from other kinds of cognition. But the latest science suggests that this assumption is false. Instead, creativity is a catchall term for a variety of distinct thought processes(The brain is the ultimate category buster.)


I fancy myself to be a highly generative person and as I read both the academic and anecdotal parts of Lehrer's work, I am both affirmed and challenged. This book makes me want to run out and develop an idea, create a work and challenge a long-held tradition or two.

The book opens with the story of how Procter and Gamble came to develop the Swiffer disposable mop/floor cleaner.
That story is almost worth the price of the book.

What are you thinking these days? Could you use a fresh jolt and shot? Tea drinker that I am, I need no cups of coffee. Just give me a book. :)

Spring Break

As I write, I am in the passenger seat of a rented car which we three Farmers drove to Atlanta. My beloved son is driving and, obviously, Rosemary is in the back. We spent three all- too- short days in Atlanta, visiting my twin sister, nieces, nephews and dear friends.
I take for granted neither safety on interstate 20 nor positive times with family. Yet, I experienced both. This morning I read, and shared with my son and wife, the verse in Psalm 68:6, which says that God sets the solitary in families. What a privilege it is, to be delivered from the solitary navigation of life.During this brief road trip, I celebrated the reality of being part of a large extended family. I hope you will do the same. Do our families have some people in them who frustrate us? YES!! Do we have members of our clans who make unwise decisions? YES!! However, we are stuck with each other and we are gifts to each other.
This week, I dare you to take time to consider how different your life would be if you had not been set in families.And...be nice to the knucklehead(s) in your family. :-)

Jack and Jill and Richard and Shawn

Tonight, my wife and I went to see Adam Sandler's silly comedy, Jack and Jill. It featured, predictably,over-the-top physical comedy,fart sounds and wisecracking children. I had a personal interest in this story about twins,as I am a twin. Shawn,who is five minutes younger than I,is a great delight to me. As we are boy and girl twins,we are not as close as same-sex twins might be. We neither shared a room while growing up nor shared each other's clothes. However,Shawn and I share a closeness that I do not have with my other sisters. In Sandler's film,the twins spoke a language all their own and had a bond which could not be denied- as much as Sandler's character tried to. Shawn and I will turn 60 years old in a few days and have arranged to be together on our birthday. She will fly to Anchorage from Atlanta,where she lives,and will join me for a week of ministry that I have in beautiful Alaska. My wombmate and I have a bond and will rejoice that we have lived this long,that our mother is still living and that we still like to hug each other...just as we did when we were children.
Tonight, Adam Sandler made me laugh and Shawn Farmer Monroe makes me smile.

Our mother didn't write the following, but she could have:

Two faces to wash,and four dirty hands
Two insistent voices,making demands
Twice as much crying,when things go wrong
The four eyes closing,with slumber song
Twice as many garments,blowing on the line
Two cherubs in the wagon,soaking up sunshine
Work I do for twins,naturally comes double
But four arms to hug me, repay all my trouble
- Author Unknown

In Time

Today I went to the movies and saw In Time. This fantasy film poses this question: Suppose time was our currency? In the film, people paid for goods and services by having minutes and hours deducted from an account that was kept on their arms. One would look at one's arm and say or think, "I have only a decade left". The film gave me a renewed appreciation for the time we have and gave me a renewed commitment to waste not one minute. If I were a sluggard, which I am not, this film would have been the kick in the rear necessary to get me moving.
The psalmist said that his times were in God's hands(Psalm 31:15)So are ours. If a room in a hotel were to cost me a month of my life or a bag of groceries were to cost me 10 hours, I would think seriously about every act and every purchase.While I am not counting down on some visible clock and have no idea of when my time is up, I must be a careful steward of the minutes, hours, days, months and years that I have left. Eugene Peterson, in The Message paraphrase of the bible, renders Ephesians 5:16 this way:"Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!"
Not a bad idea. Let us live...In Time.

Chat with Mudder

With homage to the Bowery Boys, I call my mother "Mudder". She is one of the great lights of my life. She will celebrate her 81st birthday on October 16 and shows no signs of slowing down. Mudder is a model for those of us who watch her. She is a life-long learner, is physically active, spiritually alive and is a loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, cousin and friend.In our last weekly chat, Mudder told me that she'd struck gold. She was sorting through papers which belonged to her mother (1900-1998) and came across notes which my grandmother took in a class in 1924. My mother knew that I, amateur family historian, would want to see that 87 year old sample of my grandmother's writing. I have no plans to ever stop Mudder when she is telling a story. When she speaks, she is handing off history to us. We would be foolish to stop the flow of historical data.
I am sooooooo glad Mudder is still with us. If you have an elder speaking to you and finding scraps of paper as they clean house, embrace both the elder...and the scraps of paper.

A Four Hour Drive to Glennallen

Early this morning, shortly after midnight, I landed in Anchorage on US Airways flight 140.
Harley Bowerman met me at the airport and we began the four drive to the Alaska Bible College. I have never had a bad trip to this state, having been here at least a dozen times. However, traveling from 12:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. does not put one in the best shape for an 11:00 a.m. chapel service. My eyes were open for entire drive and, after some sleep,for the entire chapel.
Sometimes we push ourselves in the name of ministry and it is not inappropriate. I would not wish to make such a journey on a regular basis, but today was memorable. We came upon no midnight moose, no wandering caribou and no car problems.What more could one ask?
All is well.

I don't like the fitness center

That's not an entirely true statement. I dislike, very much, the getting up and getting there. Once there, I am energized by the workout that I give my body. On Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, I swim non-stop laps for 45 minutes. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I am on the elliptical machine for 30 minutes, followed by a circuit on some core-strengthening machines. I take the weekends off. We only get one body while on this terrestrial ball, so we must take care of it. We have to turn it in at the end of life. We can have rods inserted, fat sucked out, parts replaced and pieces removed. However, we still get only one body on this side of Jordan. Since that is true, let us be good caretakers. I am no fitness guru. The single motivation for me to stay fit is that I picture (and see) what limitations are placed on one, when one is out of shape. There are trips you can't take and hills you can't climb. There are grandbabies you can't run with and days at the park you can't enjoy. I am not going out like that!! So, tomorrow I will drag my body to the center again. I will be in a great mood when I leave there.