Favorite Authors

I love reading books. Here are some of my favorite authors and some of thier books that I could read again and again. Let me know some of yours.

1. David James Duncan
The Brothers K
The River Why
2. Chiam Potok
My Name is Asher Lev/The Gift of Asher Lev
The Chosen/The Promise
Davita's Harp
3. Anne Lamott
Bird by Bird
Hard Laughter
Traveling Mercies
4. Ernest Heminway
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Sun Also Rises
A Farewell to Arms
5. Glen David Gold
Carter Beats the Devil

Happy reading!

Ghostbusters and You

In the 1980's movie Ghostbusters, the motto of the Ghostbusters is "We're ready to believe you!" What does this have to do with you? We'll I've noticed that as I read newspapers, listen to the radio, talk to friends, watch T.V. that there is a lot of skepticism in our personal and social conversations. So, why aren't we ready to believe people?

When someone says, "This is my experience." It is saddening that so often our response is one of doubt. We reply with things like, "Have you thought about.." "That's because you..." "I don't think they meant that when..." We question if people really understand their own experience. We do this with children all the time, but it has been done to minorities, women, homosexuals, Christians, Muslims, atheists, the elderly, you, me, anyone and everyone.

Personally, I've decided that being skeptical takes just too much energy. Doubt is like a worm which eats away at your ability to trust. I've decided that "I'm ready to believe you."

Something Nu

I recently began a running group for people who don't run but want to learn. For those people who have had bad experiences or who think if will destroy thier knees or back, or who are afraid that they will look silly. It's called Nu 2 Running, which I know is kind of silly, but it works. There are about six people so far, but we're doing well. If you live in the Grand Haven area and want to come run with us we go at a nice pace and we run on Sunday's right after church.

It takes a lot of guts to do something that you might fail at. So I am calling today, "Salute the courageous Day." Find someone you admire and salute them. I mean this literately too. Do an actual salute. Stand there saluting until they return the gesture. It will be fun for all parties involved.

Names of Stuff

Autumn is upon us, which means only one thing: time to put our flip-flops away until next summer.

As I was giving my flip-flops one last victory lap before they entered seasonal retirement, I realized what a silly name "flip-flop" is. It's just the sound of foam against feet in the process of walking. Then I wondered if there were other things that were named according to the sounds they made. "Tap-shoes" immediately came to mind as I was whole footwear mind set. "Pop" or "Soda-pop" does in fact, pop. In "Fall" the leaves do. I'm sure there are others and I encourage you to put them in a comment for all to see.

But the main purpose of this post is to suggest that we change the name of things to fit with the sounds associated with them.

Phones = talkers
pencils = scratchies
keys = jinglers
babies = goo-goos (or criers)
doorbells = ding-dongs
hammers = thuds
cars = vrooms
politicians = blah-blahs
baseball bat = cracker
gun = puut
etc.

You can make up some of your own. You'll find that your writing is much more exciting if you use my new words rather than old, boring, words-that-don't-sound-like-what-they-make-the-sound-of. Let me show you:

A man locked his jinglers in his vroom. He tried to contact his wife on the talker but someone rang the ding-dong and the goo-goo was restless, so she couldn't help. He looked for a cracker to break the keesh (the sound of breaking glass), but all he found was a thud. Suddenly a man across the street pulled out a puut.

See what I mean? Now you try one.

Making the World a Better Place through Bathroom Etiquette

I was in a bookstore last Friday and upon a simple trip to the bathroom, I experienced the epitome of poor bathroom etiquette. I don't know anything about proper behavior in women's restroom, but I hold strong convictions about the right and wrong way to behave in a men's restroom. This story illustrates my basic principles of proper public restroom behavior.

It was not a small bathroom, but not a large one either. Two urinals and two stalls, one of which was larger, wheel-chair accessible. It was clean, with plenty of soap and paper-towels. Nothing wrong so far. There was only one man at a urinal. Since there were only two urinals I couldn't follow Rule #1: When at all possible, leave space between multiple urinals. I took up residence at the available urinal.

Before I began my business, this man broke Rule #2: No talking. He said, "Hey, what's up?" Accompanied by a "dude-like" head nod. In retrospect, I cannot think of a more inappriate question to ask considering what I was trying to do at that moment. Additionally, I am not so busy that if you want to talk to me you have to fit it in to the time that we are relieving ourselves. I get massive "stage fright" and I cannot think of anything so important that it could not wait until we are out of the bathroom, or at least washing our hands.

Which leads to Rule #3: Wash your hands. It's not hard to do. The soap and warm water can actually feel quite nice. This gentleman decided that the best way to sanitize his hands was to scratch his butt and sneeze several times on the handle to the bathroom as he exited. Yum. But before he left, he broke Rule #4, which may surprise many women: Don't spit (or hauck) into toilets or urinals. This is one action I find particularly strange. Who are these men with such flem problems that they must hack and sputter and spit as they pee? What ever happened to swallowing? Maybe they don't realize that saliva actually has important digestive purposes. Maybe they think...Maybe I don't know what they are thinking.

Let's review:
Leave space,
No Talking,
Wash your hands,
and since you're not a cat with a hairball, no snorting-and-orally-shooting-whatever-comes-into-your-mouth-into-the-urinal, just-so-you-can-pee-on-it-in-some-kind-of-symbol-of-manly-victory-over-spit-and-boogers.

There. Now can't we all just get along?

Discovering Pictures

I am learning to use pictures in my blog. Expect to see more in the future.
Here's a picture of me.