Lafayette was everything I'd hoped it'd be and more, which isn't saying much since I expected a po-dunk Louisiana town. The hotel was more of a disappointment than I'd expected, looking like something out of a horror movie, but with all the friendliness and charm of middle America.

I enjoyed an early dinner thanks to the generosity of my boss sending me in early to enjoy the Cajun cuisine, and I wasn't disappointed there. Blue Dog cafe had mediocre art for which it's apparently locally famous, but also featured decent cajun inspired food, whatever that means. I think around here the concept of Cajun is held in high regard, much as East Texans revere their own heritage as such. I don't discount it, I just clearly don't understand it. They love Community Coffee, believe Abitas beer to be something special in the world of brewing, and extol the values of Cajun music, which as described to me is Blue Grass sung in French. We each need our own identity.

I think homebrew is God's gift to man-kind, Miatas represent a masterpiece of automotive engineering, and that dogs are not just man's best friend, but are in many ways superior to man. Understand that my sarcasm does not equal a sense of superiority, I'm an odd-duck too.

I think all of us are completely bizarre, and it makes humanity all the more amazing. I think I underestimate the beauty and complexity of people I don't understand too often. I mentally cut down people who don't drive the way I think they should, or grow up in cities bigger or smaller than my own, and it's wrong. I'm probably suffering a bout of post-business trip introspection, combined with a lack of writing, which for me is a creative outlet, no matter how base or unimaginative it may be. There's a whole host of people I disagree with and seek to debate with, hoping to prove my way of thinking, and I think part of that is a healthy search to define myself, while I also think I need to seek to understand how others see the world.

I'm simultaneously re-engaging Orthodoxy and trying to understand that perspective, while reading through Velvet Elvis, what has been described as a Post-Modern treatise on Christiantiy (or at least nearly aledged to be). I feel in many ways I'm coming to see Post-Modernism as being simply a dose of common sense, while perhaps taken to extremes by people as many good things are. I've always felt that absolute truth, while it exists, is in many cases un-provable, which nearly equates to unknowable. The next step for the post-Modernist might be unbelief, whereas for me the next step is to have faith in what I can't necessarily prove.

What I don't see is a serious affront to Christianity, as some of my fellow Christians see, in the belief that there's truth in nearly everything. Even the most effective lies of the devil wrap truth in them, and I don't think we should be scared to pick anything apart and accept what aligns with what we see to be true. While I treat very positively the thing I hear from those I "trust", nothing should escape scrutiny because of its source, and everything I believe is, and should be I think, open to question. It may sound like I hold nothing sacred, but I don't think that's the same thing. I think child-like faith is open to all possibilities, not blind in it's lack of critical thought. A child still questions, he just doesn't have the history of being burned to make him overly skeptical of things which may very well end up being the truth.

Lest there every be any confusion, I love dogs. I think I've always loved dogs, or at least always felt an affinity for them, and after bringing Dexter home, interacting with all the other dogs at the dog park, and seeing my wife become a dog lover, too, it's become part of who I am. We now watch every dog show that comes on TV, we recently made a trip to Tyler and stayed longer so we could go see an appearance by one of the dogs on Greatest American Dog, and both Brooke and I are excited about decorating our little boy's room with a puppy theme.

We've gone through some very frustrating times with our little boy, such as when he was really young and thought that playful meant biting. Currently he still has a tendency to get excited and jump up on people when he's not supposed to. He's coming along with training though, and seems to be paying heed a lot more when we ask him to do things. He's very nearly housebroken, except when he's been given unlimited access to water. He has no concept of limiting his intake, and I really think he'd explode if we gave him enough water.

He's also become a rather frequent part of my dreams. The first couple of times I dreamed I had to kill him, once because he was a demon's dog. It was rather disturbing, and more recently I just dream about losing him and trying to find him again. He's my precious boy, and I hope he loves our more precious boy once he gets here.

This weekend we had an amazing time, thanks largely to the efforts of Joy, Jackie, and Emily the party planners, as well as their co-operative husbands. Brooke's 30th, and last publicly acknowledged birthday until further notice, was a surprise vampire themed party, which she loved.



There were elaborate and tasty foods, dancing with reckless abandon, and at one point a pit bull roaming the neighborhood ran in the front door and attacked our hosts' Chihuahua. Luckily Rowdy suffered only a couple scrapes and emotional scarring. Without realizing all that had occurred inside, I bonded with the pit who ran around to the backyard, let it in through the gate and called the phone number on its tags to get the owner to come pick her up. She was quite friendly, and the owner was apologetic, though I felt bad when I realized I had let the perpetrator of terror on the premises.

There's a ton of photos on Flickr now, documenting the party, thanks to my obsession with my new toy (Nikon D40).

There's a sick part of me that wants to see our economic system fall right now. I'm laying that out at the beginning, because it's the basic point of rambling to follow. To clarify, I know the bad things that would come with this fall, and I don't desire those. Starvation in lower economic nations, riots and wars coming along too. Unemployment in nations like our own, with families having to potentially lose their homes. There would be some very bad things that would happen, and I wish they could be prevented.

I don't think they can be. I also think the fall will come regardless of, and in fact in part due to the actions our government is taking (read bailout and limitless loans to foreign banks). The positives I see, however, are a return to realistic lifestyles, spending what we make, rather than at some fantasy level we think we can sustain with credit. I also think the fall would help wake some of us up to see that we must help the needy ourselves, not rely on our government to do it for us.

But I'm also the guy you hate. I see the smoke filled room of rich and faceless men playing the nations against each other for their own gain, and at times, perhaps solely for their amusement. I see gloom, and see the next great depression just over the horizon. It makes me wonder what I'll tell my boy about the times he sees growing up. Maybe I'll be the reverse of my grandparents. "Sonny, when I was a kid, we didn't have to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow, and buying houses and food was no big deal."

For the first time ever I'm actively looking into what it would take to have a stockpile of food, and I'm wondering how long is enough. If an energy crises brought us to our knees, or perhaps just deflation, I'm looking at how I could provide clean water and food until we saw some relief.

Maybe it's a mis-guided attempt to lend meaning to my life. "I raised my first child through the second great depression." Sounds familiar to those people laying flowers at Princes Diana's grave. All I could see back then was a desire to latch themselves onto something bigger than their own lives, something more permanent, and something that made them stand out as unique, both now and in a historical sense.

I know either way it's helping provide for me a distraction from the single goal I should have, which is to seek God's will for my life and my family, and work however I can to fulfill that. Considering how often I check CNN and Reddit, compared to how often I set aside time to listen to God, or search through the Bible, or even talk to my friends about anything of more permanent value than work, politics, and economy, it's working all too well.

Thoughts on Fatherhood

This weekend was rather eventful, usually leaving me more tired Monday morning than Friday afternoon, however this was really quite fun and relaxing. I got to see my precious little boy in more detail than I would have ever imagined!



He's sticking his little hand in his mouth here, and holding relatively still. We got to spend well over an hour with Brooke's cousin Sunni who has a private practice in Tyler and has an awesome 3D sonogram machine. After looking at several angles, she said she's about 80% sure it's a boy. He was kicking and moving all over the place, and it was truly awesome to see.



Also while we were there we got to see 2 of our favorite little boys, Sunni's sons Ethan and Seth. Ethan (3) is now at the age where he says exactly what's going through his mind at every moment without filter, which is hilarious. This ranges from correcting his mother's "bad language" with "Mommy, girls aren't supposed to say wrong words." to "That's Dexter's house. This is our house, but we're not doggies, we're kids." It was impossible not to think about what awaits us as we observed the fun and frustration of having a little boy or two in the house.



We then returned home, cooked up some stuffed jalapenos in our glorious fully functioning oven. We've been without an oven now for nearly a year, so it's still kind of exciting! We went to our Life Group meeting and discussed Post Modernism, which I'll have to post about soon.



Sunday was church, followed by Halo at C4's, which was actually a great winding down for the weekend.

A friend asked me what I thought of the IRS stance on church involvement, and also whether Biblical values should be primary criteria in selecting a candidate. There is a link to the video that promted the question, and below it is my response.

ADF’s Pulpit Initiative

Good questions. I don't know how far the IRS goes, but on its website it states:

In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.

This doesn't say that the church can't influence legislation. It goes on to say that there are limitations. I personally believe it's necessary to make sure that some "action organizations" don't abuse the tax exemption simply by calling themselves a church. As a church, we should be far more active in the community that in active lobbying.

I also think the pastor featured in the video was doing Christianity a disservice by singling out Obama that way. He essentially called into question either your sanity or your salvation if you vote for Obama. That's not something a pastor should do from the pulpit. I'm pretty sure none of us should be doing it in private either. The church should be allowed to speak out on any issue that affects its people, but making it personal is unwise, and the way he did it is unacceptable.

Side Note:
I think you know my stance on marriage, the primary issue he brought up, and that is that the goverment is already over-stepping its bounds by legislating marriage at all. Unless you're setting up a Theocracy, I don't see how you can argue that our government has to legislate from the Bible. God saves people, and God disciplines people, and as a church we are to at times discipline our own. Nowhere does the Bible talk about disciplining non-believers.

Now as to your second question, should our selection criteria for political candidates be from the Bible. I think so, I think our representatives should have Biblical beliefs, and stand up for the values we have as much as possible. It makes sense if they're representing us that they believe very similarly to us. It doesn't then follow that I couldn't vote for a non-believer, but I would only do so if they more acurately represent me than the other candidates.