Tuesdays with Morris

The first few pictures are from a little playground at the park. Sammie loved crawling in and out of the “fort”-like area. The last two pictures are from Matt and Sarah’s wedding reception. Sammie loves cake!

The girl with the cheesy grin is two years old today!

We’re at McCormick’s Creek State Park for the weekend. It’s a little rainy today. But the forecast looks great for Saturday and Sunday!

Sammie has come to love the children’s garden at Minnetrista . Last week, we visited several times after dinner (it’s nice that we live so close, especially due to the fact that she asks to go everyday). I’m sure the summer months will be filled with trips to explore the gardens.

Today, I am deeply disturbed by the usage of the letter “x”. Mainly, I’m troubled by the manner in which many churches have used the letter “x” to somehow connect with younger generations. How do they do this? They spell words using the letter “x” to seem hip and cool. About 5 to 7 years ago, churches all over the place were doing this in order to reach the “Gen X” crowd (just a note, most people who fall into this generational group detest labels such as “gen x”). Most of those churches have realized that simply giving a ministry a cool name doesn’t always mean there will be masses of young people flooding through the doors. In fact, some of the churches that started “x” driven ministries have changed names, focus, or in some cases, even shut down the ministry.

I’d done my best to try and forget about this usage of the letter “x”. But, today while reading through some literature (or denominational propaganda as I like to refer to it), I learned about a church starting a new service called Connexion (get it, that’s a hip way to spell connection). Frankly, I find this usage of the letter “x” insulting to the letters “c” and “t”. Did anyone think about those letters?

I shouldn’t complain too much. At least these churches are trying…

In today’s consumer-driven culture, it’s often difficult to find really good music hitting the airwaves. We live in a day of pretty sub-par music that gets played on the radio and television. That’s why I watch PBS and listen to NPR…I can avoid much of the “popular” music of our day.

As I’m working in the office, I’m listening to music by Explosions in the Sky. Now, let me begin by saying you need to appreciate electric-guitar driven rock music. Sort of in the vain of Mogwai, these guys do the instrumental rock beautifully. There is a range from simple beauty to angst driven power in their songs. I truly dig this band and hope you’ll check them out.