Monthly Archives: August 2009

Six-Word Story

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Have you heard of the six-word story?

Ernest Hemingway’s is the most famous:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

The distillation process intrigues me.
Because all that is not written captures the essence.

Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser collected
six word memoirs and published them in
Not Quite What I Was Planning.
Here are a few.

Good, evil use the same font.
~ Arthur Harris

Detergent girl:  Bold. Tide. Cheer. All.
~ Martha Clarkson

Oh sweet nectar of life, coffee.
~ Daniel Axenty

I am considering starting Six-Word Saturday.
Perhaps in September?
Six words are not so easy.

If George Grant has eleven
and Abraham Piper has twenty-two,
why can’t we (you are included) do six?

It’s great practice.

The art of reduction.

~     ~     ~

Today is my son’s 27th birthday.
For Chris, I offer two sextuples.
Bookends of your life so far.

Beyond exhaustion, strength spent.  Baby Boy!

Backlit strength, silhouetting grace.  He stands.

Huckleberry Find

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The forecast is for a smokin’ hot afternoon.
Whatcha gonna do?

Go up in elevation and pick huckleberries, that’s what.
After a morning of worship and a picnic lunch,
our friends Matt and Carol (with their newbie son Isaac)
shared their secret spot with a few friends. 

Generous folks. 
Anyone who brings a huckleberry pie to a potluck
is generous beyond the beyonds.

      

Huckleberries are very small and don’t grow in clusters.
It took Curt and I all afternoon to pick one gallon.


Tip of the day: Huckleberries have so much flavor,
you can mix them with blueberries in recipes to stretch them.


Caught red-handed!

Training for Heaven

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Good hymns are an immense blessing to the Church of Christ.  I believe the last day alone will show the world the real amount of good they have done.  They suit all, both rich and poor.  There is an elevating, stirring, soothing, spiritualizing effect about a thoroughly good hymn, which nothing else can produce.  It sticks in men’s memories when texts are forgotten. 

It trains men for heaven, where praise is one of the principal occupations.  Preaching and praying shall one day cease forever; but praise shall never die.  The makers of good ballads are said to sway national opinion.  The writers of good hymns, in like manner, are those who leave the deepest marks on the face of the Church.

~ J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)

Tattoos

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An interesting discussion over at Nancy’s blog. 

Thoughts?

Okay, I should put my oar in the water before I ask you what you think.

Personally, I think tattoos are a turn-off.
My struggle is not to be judgmental when I see one.
And I have more than one friend with a tattoo.
But an internal transaction always has to happen.
That is just my preference, not any doctrine.

If a friend told me she was contemplating a tattoo,
and we were good friends,
I would try to talk her out of it.

I’m still working through what arguments I would use.