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Memphis in June and Seattle in Summer couldn’t be any more different. Sitting on the ground floor of the Pike Place Market my senses were overloaded. Rarely have my surroundings been so sensational. My dad was comfortable in a more familiar locale. Sitting in a truckstop alongside I-55 in West Memphis Arkansas he was home.

Born and raised in the south, mostly Alabama with a few stops in Louisville as a teen, south of the Mason Dixon is where he was most comfortable. Not much for white linens and fine silver, the drivers table in a truck stop was almost as good as his mom’s kitchen table. He still had miles to go but the log book said he was over miles and needed to log some hours with the truck parked. Dinner, a shower, a movie in the driver’s lounge, then sleep before pushing on south.

Lunch had come to a quiet close at the Pike Place Market and the chinese food stand. Walking out of the kitchen into the afternoon sun in the alley, Harry announced our next stop. Pac Beach. Pacific Beach Naval Recreation facility was the biggest thing in Pacific Beach Washington. Once a Navy radar station this little outpost is a weekend retreat location for military families in the Pacific Northwest. Outside a bar, a couple of restaurants, one with putt putt, and the annual kite festival, there is not a lot in Pacific Beach. The town sits on the coast, most on a bluff above the icy blue Pacific.  A great location for watching wales and sea lions.

Pacific Beach WA has a very small population and is situated due west of most of the clear cut forest that threatened the spotted owl in the early 90′s.  Southeast of Olympia National Forest and south of the Taholah India reservation its a sleep town dependent on summer tourism. That is why I reported for duty the Monday before Memorial day 1995. 13 weeks working for the Navy entertaining the families who would visit the hotel and guests houses on summer vacation.

Leaving interstate 5 in Olympia, the blue sky of the Pacific opens up and the clouds hiding Rainier fade into the rear view. 101 heads due west to the Ocean and the landscaped changed. What had been dense forests of pine and cedar with intermittent bits of suburb.  The view turned to younger trees, and miles and miles of clear cut. I considered myself an expert after completing a field biology class with a B- the semester before. I actually defended the spotted owl against the logging industry.   Now I was in the midst of the story I tried to tell months before.

The road winded through little towns..all reminding me of wild west ghost towns. My driver explained that these had been booming logging towns just a year or two before. The spotted owl had shut it all down. I spent the next 82 miles took me through McCleary, Montesano, Aberdeen and another 1/2 dozen towns all left in the wake of a logging shut down.  Leaving Aberdeen you cross a stream that is the tail end of Grays Harbor, the ocean! Sea salt filled the air and the temperature drops a few degrees as you leave Aberdeen and begin the trek northwest to the beach.

Night was falling in West Memphis and dad had slept through more of the movie than he watched. Grabbing his bag and picking up his latest Mack Bolan paperback he made his way through the drivers lounge to grab a coke before settling into his rig for a mandatory 8 hours. He stretched the limits of a day that day, covering a tad over 600 miles in a little over 10 hours.  The days of riding along with two log books was behind him. As a driver for one of the most technologically advanced companies came with a price. GPS tracking of the rigs, real time computer logs that kept a history of idle time, moving time and down time. The computer, and the PUCO, said it was time for sleep. So sleep it was. It was a short day down I-55 through the delta tomorrow, so tonight, it was a few pages of the book and sleep while the diesel cummings idled to push cold air to the sleeper.

I follow quite a few people on Twitter. Most have the attention span of a 3 year old on Mt. Dew, but some, a select few, are dedicated to one or two causes. It’s those folks that cause me to click and read about what drives them. Amanda Hite is pretty amazing on the social media front, but apparently her street cred goes deep in the restaurant biz. As a fat kid who loves to eat out she grabbed my attention pretty early. Then I met her in January when I hosted a social media event with New Media Dayton. Her killer hair and leather jacket didn’t allow her a low key entrance into the room either.

So when she says, blog about “Share our Strength” over and over. I took note. Checked out the website: www.strength.org to find participating restaurants for the “great American dine out” campaign. Lucky for me BW’s and First Watch are on the list here in the Miami Valley. BW’s will be Wednesday night for my oldests Birthday, will have to find a companion for breakfast this week at First Watch.

Here’s the deal, every time you dine out at a participating restaurant, this week,  that restaurant will donate a portion of the proceeds to Share out Strength’s effort to end childhood hunger in America. Thats what this guy (with two thumbs facing me) calls a win win.

So click here: www.strength.org and find a place near you and dine out to end childhood hunger in America.

Only in American can we make dining out philanthropic!

follow the amazing and uber cool Amanda Hite at Talent Revolution or follow her on Twitter @sexythinker

Now go eat.

Recently I have wanted to scream from the rooftops on a few topics. I hate to use my Facebook account to share political news. It is more of a fun place where my liberal friends and far right friends can get along and laugh together at my jokes. But recently I have wanted to scream. So today I decided to just blog it.

One. This whole mosque thing has been propped up by the media to create a fight where a fight shouldn’t exist.  When there are strip clubs and McDonald’s restaurants closer to the actual site of ground zero, A Muslim recreation and community center should be preferred.  Calling Al Queda Islam is like assuming Tim McVeigh represents my Christianity. The Christian heritage of this country was born on the shoulders of men seeking religious freedom. Not a Christian state. Muslims, Buddhists, Athiests, and Jews enjoy more freedom here than in any other country of the world. Let’s not embarrass ourselves or our history by finding fault with one religion in this country. Peaceful followers of Islam didn’t bring us 9-11 and Southern Baptists didn’t bring us Oklahoma City, lets quit pretending otherwise. Perhaps if those of the Christian faith began to love the men, women and children of Islam like we are called to do, instead of rejecting them in the face of our own teachings, animosity and hatred could make way for communication and peace. Lets try it.

Typos. Recently I have spent some time online searching for a used car. What happened to a little grammar? Craigslist must give English teachers nightmares.

T.V. Loved this season of Friday Night Lights. I look forward to Sunday nights at 10:00 for Mad Men like a fat kid waits for candy. Sons of Anarchy starts soon and I couldn’t be more excited. If there are other shows on t.v. I haven’t noticed outside of the Food Network.

My wife is trusting me alone with our kids for 10 days while she works as a short term missionary spreading the gospel of peace and love to the tribal people of Rwanda. If you are interested in supporting her work there contact me. The boys and I are going to have a little mini man road trip. We are thinking a southeast swing or depending on the weather a midwest jaunt through southern Indiana, Illinois and West Kentucky.

Our kids started public school this week.  For most of America this is a routine that happens like clockwork. In our house, we have chosen to homeschool our children and until this week neither of my boys have been in daycare, preschool or a traditional school. Both are well adjusted, social, smart, athletic and some say good looking and witty. They will be fine. Caleb, age 9, walked into his classroom at open house, put out his hand and said, “Hi, I am Caleb, I am one of your students.” I am a very proud dad today. I am sure both my boys, Andrew age 8 3rd grade, and Caleb, 9 and fifth grade, will surely become class leaders. I am also positive that both boys will honor the investment their mother has made over the last 9 years and will perform studiously.

Jeep. I have been in love with the Jeep CJ/Wrangler since I was a kid. I can’t explain this love affair. I have been actively shopping for a month for a used Jeep Wrangler. I was close to a purchase and my lack of planning allowed it to slip away. I hope to secure a Jeep soon and will retire my 95 Accord, 221k and counting in the near future.

Business is great. People are terrific. Life is wonderful.

One last thing. Tonight I plan to record my first podcast and will post here soon. Its a story, an original, a true story, in the same vain as The Moth.

I read this article today from a blog called Catalyst Space. I could easily identify with the article. Long story. It talked about how Pastors have become Rock Stars. The blog posts says if you are a pastor and you are a rock star you need to change. In short, its not about you. Thats how I feel about worship. I know a guy who used to sell orthopedic shoes, he led worship at my church. I remember two things about him leading worship. First.  He wasn’t entertaining me. He was worshiping the creator of the universe and I was invited along to worship with him. Second. He didn’t seem to notice anything around him, didn’t care how he looked, he simply was worshiping with voice and guitar and we were welcome to sing along with him. That is rare. Unfortunately rare.

Recently I attended a Catholic Mass for a special occasion, a wedding or funeral or something and I left there with a few thoughts about my evangelical..contemporary..protestant way of worship.
First: Catholics have better buildings. Just the architecture lends itself to worship and reverence. A coffee shop with a theater lends itself to community and entertainment.

Second: The Mass we attended had the musicians, aka worship leaders, primarily hidden from view. They were in an orchestra pit of sorts behind the pulpit. Again, the focus was on the cross, the moment, not on who the drummer was, or the shoes the guitarist was wearing.

So my thoughts are this:

What if my church closed the curtains. What if the cross was front and center. What if the music was the same. The vocalists the same. What if the two jumbotron screens displayed the same lyrics, but the band..the worship leaders were hidden behind the cross. What if they were second. What if I was second. Then would the object of our worship be first?

What if.

Perhaps then the music would also be secondary. Then the hymn or Crowder anthem would be less of an issue.
What if.

Perhaps then folks would be more apt to worship in their own way without regard to the 14 faces staring back at them during an intimate moment with God?

What if.

Perhaps the draw to a really nice theater at 9:00 a.m. on  a Sunday morning was worship, not a produced 1 hour 10 minute production that is repeated identically in 11 other locales in the 937?

Disclaimer:

For the last 14 years I have been a Christ Follower. I have worshipped my creator in a tiny 200 year old church with organ and hymns with all 40 members of the congregation. I have worshipped my savior in a park in Miami Florida in a bi lingual service where english was neither of the two languages, I have worshipped the Son of Man in the midst of 7000 others in one of the largest mega churches east of the Mississippi and have worshipped Christ with hundreds in a back ally in Havana. Worship can happen any where, at any time, by anyone who is willing to put themselves second and put the object of their worship first.  The point of this blog post is to simply question whether or not we can find a way to put our focus where it should be with a change of the drapes.

I have come to observe a few things recently while reading my Facebook and Twitter feeds.  The first is that people tell too much. I admit that I fall prey to this phenomenon way too often myself.  In our fish bowl culture of reality t.v. most Facebook and Twitter users use this medium to communicate every one of life’s events to the body public. There are some masters of social media in my sphere of influence who communicate well and provide for a conversation in my feeds and not just a diary dump of days events.

The second phenomenon was reported this week in the New York Daily News. This study researched people’s Twitter feeds to determine the best day of the week. I asked this question, “how could you possibly find that out?” Apparently you can. According to the study:

A study tracking the moods of Twitter users has revealed that people are angrier on Thursdays than any other day of the week.

“We’re not really sure exactly why Thursday, but people’s bad moods build from Monday until then,” said Northeastern University professor Alan Mislove.

“On Friday, it seems people’s moods change and they become happier until Sunday when the cycle starts over.”

Reading the article I learned that the folks at Northeaster University used keyword searches and produced a nifty video showing what they learned.

My point is, no body cares if your having a case of the Monday’s. If people can determine what your best/worst day is from your Facebook or Twitter page, then you are doing it wrong.

I am pretty sure that Facebook is manic. If your status updates have gone all 296 then take a break from Facebook. I have friends who only update their status if their life is perfect or falling apart at the seams. They never share real or helpful information, a music link, a news report, a story talking about a charitable work.  Only “my life is better than your life because my man/woman is better than your man/woman” or the “OMG what am I going to do with my life because .blah blah blah…”. If this is you, terminate your account now. There is room for all of it, lets just avoid the extremes and monotony.

I have to admit, I have a few friends on both Twitter (376 friends) and Facebook (941 friends) that fall into this category. I keep them in my stream only to watch from a safe distance. I am mocking you right now. Its like my own private reality t.v. show. For free.

So keep this in mind, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Plaxo, Youtube, Flickr, any of them, its like having a conversation in real life. I don’t care about your kitten, or your car sucking, or that you hate Thursday’s and can’t wait for Friday’s. Tell me something that will improve our relationship, teach me something, show me something new, give me something to work with besides “cant wait for school to start so I dont kill me kids before Aug 24″ or the dreaded, “8 days til my vacation starts”.

If I am guilty of these, call me out. Last week I did this very thing, in less than 10 minutes I deleted the post and apologized. Please do the same.

K? Thanks. TTYL.

See what I did there..that last line..yea..text lingo..I know..funny.