Comments on Comment

You know, I don't get exciting mail very much anymore.  Well, minus the occasional surprises from a friend (which I always cherish) or a postcard from Starbucks that entitles me to a free drink on my birthday.  That rolls around only once-a-year, so you can see that my mail doesn't give me a whole lot to look forward to.  And I no longer have a subscription to Sports Illustrated, so double bummer. 

But then comes that one piece of mail every three months that I practically salivate over, waiting for it to arrive in my mailbox.  And then when I get it, it's like I can't read it fast enough.  My brain jumps into overdrive trying to comprehend what I'm reading, to take into my heart and my mind and allow it to be a catalyst for change.

I take notes and underline things and then spend the next week contemplating the articles, hashing them out with friends, writing my own thoughts in response to the concepts and principles shared. 

Comment, you are my very favorite piece of consistent mail. I love your layout.  I love the way the pages feel in my hands. I love that your photos are in black and white.  I love your simplicity.  I love your robust look at faith, and art, and music, and literature, and politics, and why it's good to make a better burger.  I love that you foster this idea of embracing all of life as a Christian, not just parts of life.  I love that you compel me to think differently about the city in which I live.  I love that you challenge me to ask the big questions, the hard questions, the ones I'm sometimes afraid to ask for fear no one else is asking the same thing or has an answer.

 And this latest issue seemed to speak to so many of the thoughts I have bouncing around in my head.  I think I said "yes!" to myself after every article, my mind in agreement with concepts and ideas, even if some of those things are what I merely long to put into practice rather than presently doing.  

"Christians should be doing things that are healing and redemptive rather than saying Jesus will take care of it.  That doesn't let us off the hook."  Yes! 

"Loving your neighbor requires attention to the nature of your activity in a particular place, year after year.  If young people use neighborhoods only as sleeping quarters and playgrounds, they will do harm to the neighborhood."   Yes! (And as I consider the idea of finding a new place to live, this particuarly speaks to me now.) 

"It can be difficult to remember that we are creative people called to faithfully live out unique callings - which may or may not conform to the local flavor."  Yes!

"Creating good food and welcoming tables speaks to the deepest parts of our being.  We are created to live artfully in daily life, to need real food to nourish our bodies, to have tables at which to belong, and to have stopping places where we can know and be known.  Cooking matters because people matter.  Feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger are signposts of the Christian life."  I don't cook a whole lot, but yes!

"I return to Frederick Buechner's quote, 'The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.' Since the world's deep hunger is present everywhere, why not focus on finding your great gladness?  By this I don't mean, 'why not just live for pleasure,' but what do you already know about what you love?  Can you make beauty?  Then be an artist.  Do you love to read?  Then study literature."  Double yes!

So, thank you, Comment, for entering my little corner of the world (and to Travis for introducing me to it).  

I can't wait for your next issue.   

When You're the Best of Friends...

"When you're the best of friends,
Having so much fun together,
You're not even aware, you're such a funny pair.
You're the best of friends."

My nephew just turned three in October.  He might as well speak Dutch because I can't understand him half the time.  Sounds and syllables never quite come out like they should and most of the time you have to ask him to repeat himself at least three times before it dawns on you what he's saying.  Or you just smile and nod and he goes on his merry way. 
 
If there was ever a little boy, it's Rocco, for he is surely all boy.  I don't think I've ever met a kid who likes to wrestle as much as he does.  And it doesn't matter who.  He's convinced, I think, that he can knock my dad over and take him out with one punch to the belly.  The other day we were playing around and he asked me if I wanted to wrestle.  My mom overheard him and she half-jokingly said, "Now, Rocco - there's no wrestling in this house."  He then proceeds to get the saddest face you have ever seen, sticks his lip out, looks like he's about to cry, walks over to the couch and says, "Ohhhhh, man!" He then flings himself down on the couch, with his nose stuck in the cushions, acting like it's the end of the world.  I had to work so hard at stifling my laughter. 
 
But the other day was probably the most precious moment I've ever had with him.  We were waiting on the extended family to arrive to celebrate Christmas (we do it a week early so that we have half-a-chance of actually getting everybody in one location on the same day).  So, to kill time we decide to build a tent, using the back of the couch and the living room railing as our means of support.  I fling a blanket over top of everything, hang another small blanket on the side so we could have a door, and voila! a tent.  We crawl underneath and stuff some pillows in so we can lay down.  Rocco's laying (lying? Sorry, Mrs. Faulk, I can still never remember the difference despite your best efforts in 7th and 8th grade English) next to me and we're just real quiet for a moment.  And then he rolls over to look at me and touches me on the arm, saying so sincerely, with his big brown eyes fixed on mine:
 
"Tortney, you're my vwery best fwend."
 
Nearly made me cry my eyes out right there.  The most precious thing I've encountered in awhile.  
 
But the moment was quickly forgotten in his mind as people began streaming in the door.  
 
But not for me.  It's one I'll cherish for a long time to come.

Dear Blank Please Blank

I am slightly obsessed with a new-to-me website that my cousin told me about.  It's a general time-waster, but man, it's funny.  It's called "Dear Blank Please Blank" and people can submit little one-liners that are written to whomever, followed by "please _________," followed by a closing of some kind.  I think the site is hysterical and I check it frequently, especially when I need a laugh.  I present to you some of my favorites:

Dear Scholarship Application Requirements,

So, in the off-chance that I'm not a blind, left-handed, Lebanese-Inuit majoring in Sustainable Pear Farming, how should I pay for college?

Sincerely, 99.9% of the Population.

Dear Prince Charming,

Who wants a castle when you could have a whole new world?

Sincerely, Aladdin.

Dear Little Miss Muffet,

What the heck is a 'tuffet?'

Sincerely, Little Children around the World.

Dear school spirit week,

I swear I'm not the only decade.

Sincerely, the 80's.

Dear Google,

Please 'auto-complete' my thesis.

Sincerely, Grad Student.

Dear Graffiti Artist,

How in the world did you get up there?

Sincerely, Confused.

Dear Noah,

We could have sworn you said the ark wasn't leaving till 5.

Sincerely, Unicorns.

Enjoy.  And make up a few of your own along the way.  :)

Scraps of Moments

Sometimes you need some reminders that life is funny.  And sometimes you need to be inspired.  And sometimes you just need to remember.

I keep a notebook for that.  

I started it several years ago and it is now one of my favorite things I own.  It started out as a means to consolidate all of these scraps of magazines and newspapers I had lying (laying?  I still never remember which to use) around my dorm room and eventual apartment.  It's this hodge-podge of things that have captured my imagination or attention over the years.   Some of the clippings make me laugh - I pull those out when I need to do just that.  Some of the clippings remind me of significant historical moments, ones I don't want to forget.  Some clippings are just creative and clever ideas I have saved for my some-day house, things to lock away for future use.  Most items are just headlines cut out of magazines, or photographs I find compelling.  On the front cover I put a quote that I snagged from a magazine, which said, "I surround myself with things I love, anything that inspires me."  It's my collection of things I love and things that inspire me.   

  

There's the one that makes me laugh every time without fail, the one on the left here.  It's a picture of a little black pug and the caption reads, "I enjoy licking faces.  And toilets."  Another page has a clipping from Sports Illustrated, when they interviewed Olympic hurdler, Jana Rawlinson, on why she she had her breast implants removed.  She said, "I absolutely loved having bigger boobs, but I don't want to shortchange Australia either."  I mean, come on.  That's funny. 

Then I've got newspaper clippings, ones about the 2008 election and how Sarah Palin obliterated the "feminist template," how the "Buckeyes unite their faithful like no other team,"  and 'Do ladies love country boys? Not if they're undereducated."  Those things that inspire, make me ask questions.   

Then there's the "stay baseball" ad.  I don't even like baseball, but I like this ad.  It says, "Stay baseball.  Stay our favorite pastime.  Stay the best part of a lazy summer day, or a tense October night.  Stay the bonding experience of choice for dads and kids across the country.  Stay obsessively statistical.  And incredibly poetic.  Stay baseball."  I can appreciate it for what it's ultimately saying even if I can't say much for the game itself.  I also sometimes pull out entire spreads of magazines, the photographs that capture a brief moment in time.  The one on the right is when Zenyatta won the Breeders' Cup Classic in 2009.  I felt like it was such a quinessential moment, with Mike Smith opening his arms up to the heavens, photographers waiting to capture the emotion.   

I like pulling out my notebook when I need a good laugh, when I'm feeling nostalgic and need to remember.  Tonight was one of those nights, no particular reason - and it just felt good to laugh.    And then I'm left to wonder why I'm silly enough to save clippings that say things like "I just want to be me.  Without the hot flashes."  ;)