Most of the time, I do not feel 43. 34 maybe. 17 sometimes. 12, too. But far less often 43.
People who are younger than I am, often by a fair number of years, I still think of as my elders. Nearly all professional athletes, for instance. Why is that?
Today is my birthday, which may make it a day for sober reflection, as if every day isn't already such a day. One day closer death, one day closer to my last basketball game, one day closer to retirement, one day closer to the bike crash I surely will one day have--because I don't intend any time soon to quit biking, and if you bike long enough, you will fall off sometime--and so on.
In my 43rd year I'd like to eat more vegetables, especially those grown in my own garden. I'd like write more worthwhile blog posts, or at least funnier ones. I'd like to revisit Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play an afternoon game. I'd like spend more summer evenings strumming my uke by the campfire. I'd like to join a Sunday School class again (why, five years ago, did we move from a church that gave up on adult Sunday School to one that had given up on adult Sunday School?). I'd like like to dunk a basketball one more time--but I'm not holding my breath on that one.
I'm looking forward to it.
05 January 2013
04 January 2013
13.4. Book #1 2013
Dog-Heart by Diana McCaulay
As an experiment (and who knows if this will last), I'm going to post a picture and brief reflection on each book I read (cover to cover, that is) this year.
Dog Heart is the first book I finished reading in 2013, and it's a good one. You can read some reviews here.
I knew a lot of Dexter's when I lived in Kingston; they came to the basketball court we'd helped them build--after school, Saturdays. McCaulay has so many details just right. The relentless heat, the smells, the all night noise, the crowded buses, the impossible conditions within Kingston's all age schools. And though I am not a middle class Jamaican single mother like the other main character (Sahara) in the novel, and though I knew much less about people like her, she strikes me as believable and more like me than I might care to admit. She sees a hungry boy and she wants to do more than give him a few coins this time. But her going beyond the few coins unintentionally sets the stage for an unhealthy one way dependency that becomes difficult to move beyond.
What I most like about the story is that it doesn't offer any easy answers, because there really aren't any. Kingston's ghettos are--what little I experienced of them, especially the one I knew best--are places in desperate need of worldview transformation as preparation for receptivity to the gospel. And yet there are more Christian churches in those ghettos per square mile than almost anywhere on earth.
I look back on my time in Kingston and I wonder what difference it made to the Dexter's I knew. I do not know. I also wonder what difference that time has made for me. I am still trying to figure that out.
p.s. We were missionaries in Jamaica from 1997-1999 with RENEWED ministries, a ministry committed to multiplication discipleship through sports ministry.
Dog Heart is the first book I finished reading in 2013, and it's a good one. You can read some reviews here.
I knew a lot of Dexter's when I lived in Kingston; they came to the basketball court we'd helped them build--after school, Saturdays. McCaulay has so many details just right. The relentless heat, the smells, the all night noise, the crowded buses, the impossible conditions within Kingston's all age schools. And though I am not a middle class Jamaican single mother like the other main character (Sahara) in the novel, and though I knew much less about people like her, she strikes me as believable and more like me than I might care to admit. She sees a hungry boy and she wants to do more than give him a few coins this time. But her going beyond the few coins unintentionally sets the stage for an unhealthy one way dependency that becomes difficult to move beyond.
What I most like about the story is that it doesn't offer any easy answers, because there really aren't any. Kingston's ghettos are--what little I experienced of them, especially the one I knew best--are places in desperate need of worldview transformation as preparation for receptivity to the gospel. And yet there are more Christian churches in those ghettos per square mile than almost anywhere on earth.
I look back on my time in Kingston and I wonder what difference it made to the Dexter's I knew. I do not know. I also wonder what difference that time has made for me. I am still trying to figure that out.
p.s. We were missionaries in Jamaica from 1997-1999 with RENEWED ministries, a ministry committed to multiplication discipleship through sports ministry.
13.3. Rejected blog post topics
1. Review of the X-Files episode I watched yesterday, one from Season 3 about what I think Charles Williams would call "Co-inherence" and that would make Lief Enger proud.
2. Our vet bill yesterday for Morgan, which (incorrectly) included a $159 bag of food.
3. A story of how my brand new basketball shoes that I love got a tear in them the first day I wore them.
4. How cool I am for starting a "5 year diary".
5. Sydney's new remote control SUV.
6. Jeanie's amazing ham and cheese quiche that I had for breakfast.
7. The superiority of the Humanities major to all other majors in humanities sub-disciplines.
8. My new novel.
9. How badly I need a haircut.
10. My visit to the dentist yesterday, where I had a conversation about almonds with my dentist. (We like!!)
11. How very randomly but usually several times a year I get heartbroken and homesick for Jamaica, even though I loathe almost everything about city living.
12. The conversation I had with Sydney the other day about what language we will speak in heaven. (She also wondered if I thought grandpa Kip would take care of Morgan in heaven until we joined them. We're preparing ourselves for the inevitable--Morgan will likely not live all that much longer. Not that he's sick; he's just old. Incidentally, I do.)
2. Our vet bill yesterday for Morgan, which (incorrectly) included a $159 bag of food.
3. A story of how my brand new basketball shoes that I love got a tear in them the first day I wore them.
4. How cool I am for starting a "5 year diary".
5. Sydney's new remote control SUV.
6. Jeanie's amazing ham and cheese quiche that I had for breakfast.
7. The superiority of the Humanities major to all other majors in humanities sub-disciplines.
8. My new novel.
9. How badly I need a haircut.
10. My visit to the dentist yesterday, where I had a conversation about almonds with my dentist. (We like!!)
11. How very randomly but usually several times a year I get heartbroken and homesick for Jamaica, even though I loathe almost everything about city living.
12. The conversation I had with Sydney the other day about what language we will speak in heaven. (She also wondered if I thought grandpa Kip would take care of Morgan in heaven until we joined them. We're preparing ourselves for the inevitable--Morgan will likely not live all that much longer. Not that he's sick; he's just old. Incidentally, I do.)
13. A rant about a book I have not read by a person I know almost nothing about and the people who waste their time with this trash.
14. A post in which I argue that online college courses are for the kind of people who would prefer sexting or phone sex to the real thing.
15. Why I wish I could find a Missionary Church that made communion a more central part of weekly worship. Among other things...
16. Why I have more hope for the Tigers than the Cubs in 2013.
17. How I have never been a Lakers fan until this year, and of course, this year has been a near disaster so far for the Lakers. Nevertheless, I have hope.
But I don't really have the mental energy to develop any of these fully here today. Nor do I suspect I will have the energy to develop most of them fully any time soon. Nevertheless, you can vote for any you'd like to read. Can't make any promises.
Instead, I leave you with this:
My crossfit WOD for today (after 6 games of basketball).
AMRAP in 15 minutes
15 wall ball (20#)
15 dips
15 pushups
20 situps
02 January 2013
13.2 Half
June 8, Lord willing, J. and I will run in our first half-marathon together.
I probably won't put one of those 13.1 stickers on my car, even though I'd kind of like to.
I probably won't put one of those 13.1 stickers on my car, even though I'd kind of like to.
And since I'm sure you're incredibly interested, our training model will be loosely based on the principles of Crossfit Endurance, because we are old and running too much is pretty terrible for the joints of old people like us. The best part--and probably the only reason we're doing this race--is because it's in Ludington. It's called The Lakestride, and part of the course includes one of my favorite hiking trails through the Ludington State Park.
So we'll be cross-training our way to some semblance of endurance fitness. Today's workout for me will be:
Basketball (1 hr. +)
+
AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
40 Balance Lunge (20 each leg)
40 one leg squats (20 each leg)
20 wide grip pullups
40 squats
20 reverse grip pullups
01 January 2013
13.1. New Year
Maker of heaven and earth, space and time, entering this new year I put my hope in you, trusting that you will provide whatever I need for body and soul and turn to my good whatever adversity you send me. Thank you that you are able to do this because you are almighty God, and that you desire to do this because you are a faithful Father. Amen. (Heidelberg Catechism 26)
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