Imagination is Bad

Now, maybe I'm bias, because I'm a horror writer, but there is an element to our culture that seems to eschew imagination. Don’t get me wrong, this has nothing to do with me watching someone lecture my wife on her letting our children believe in the tooth fairy. And it certainly has nothing to do with some of the church objecting to the idea of “pagan holidays”, as if most the church's history isn't made up of pagan festivals.

Earlier this year, a friend of mine went to their local annual "fairy festival" in honor of May Day, a celebration of spring where the kids wear little fairy wings. There's food and music, nothing really weird. However, the event drew protestors. People yelling at parents that they were damning their kids to hell.

My friend, someone who struggles with her own views on God, rightly wondered if those protesters may have inadvertently turned those children (and parents!) away from religion by scaring them and how someone could think yelling hateful words was a good way to spread love and a Christian viewpoint. I’m sure it certainly made her rush to return to my church. It certainly left at least one five year old wondering why the man said that Jesus didn't love her.

I simply told her that she missed the point: obviously it is important to be defined by who you are against rather than who you claim to follow. There is, likewise, no freedom to meet people where they are and build bridges to them. It’s easier to throw stones. Or protest. (Luckily, she gets my sarcasm).

There is room for imagination and make believe in our children’s worlds. The idea is to have child-like faith, with the idea of keeping a sense of awe, wonder, and appreciation of mystery. I’m really not threatened by Halloween, the tooth fairy, or Santa Claus. And as long as I’m there doing my job, to help them learn to differentiate between fantasy and reality, my children won’t be confused.



***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Why – Chapter 1 - A Lament

Why – Chapter 1
(A Lament by Ro Broaddus)

Was it that lie I told?
Was it my impure thought?
Did my words need more contemplation before they leapt from my depths?
For You’ve chosen me, Lord.
Perhaps my sacrifice is for the benefit of my generations.
Ultimately? I’m unsure.
But I’m clawing my way through Your jungles,
And treading my way through Your quicksand.
I try shielding myself from the storm cloud,
And dodging the bullets from Your strife-laden rifle,
But to no avail.
Memories are daggers, struggles – Your television.
Now my body is tired.
My soul is full,
My spirit exhausted.
My future is hazy,
My world, a maze.
At one turn death excites me,
At another, a glimmer of a sliver of light escapes the cracks of my psyche.
Lord, I’m now at the end of Your leash,
Waiting for You to guide me.
I must accept the rain,
For without rain, there is no growth,
And without growth there is no life.
I had convinced me that You were a sham,
Then You let me live.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

An Interview with Alethea Kontis

The lovely Alethea Kontis is a woman who wears many hats: writer, producer, editor, as well as being a book buyer for the Ingram Book Company. Besides needing an excuse to post my favorite pictures of me and her, I wanted to ask her a few questions about being a book buyer as well as what this means to the careers of writers.

Continued on Blogging in Black.
***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Forgive Us our Trespasses

We are a second chance, forgiving culture. It doesn’t matter if you’re leaving stains on dresses, dangling your kid from balcony windows, taking steroids, or pitting dogs in combat. We’re quick to forgive. At least if you’re a celebrity, what about the rest of us?

There is a line in the Lord’s Prayer that goes “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” At least part of the idea of forgiveness is that it frees you. I’m not sure who said it, it may have been Oprah, but it is said that “refusing to forgive someone is like drinking poison, and expecting the other person to die.”

To move on, you have to have closure. It doesn’t mean you forget the offense: trust has broken, and all sides need to learn from it. However, asking forgiveness also opens dialogue. It takes courage to forgive another. Even moreso in those occasions when you have to forgive people who haven’t asked for it: there are times when, in order to no longer be a victim and to not let another have the last word over you or your life, you have to forgive those who have harmed you.

We’d like to see some sort of contrition when folks ask for forgiveness. The “I’m sorry”/”I’ve wronged you” is the first movement in the symphony of forgiveness. It’s important to express an understanding of our guilt.

Another movement involves repentance. When Tim Hardaway repented for his “I hate gay people” admission, deeds had to follow. He turned his back on his old way of doing things since repeating his mistake would only numb him to them. He sought re-education on his ideas, admitting fault, failure, and inadequacy. Because asking for forgiveness is humbling. You are at someone else’s mercy in view of your life and you realize that you aren’t in control.

Forgiveness is a gift. Forgiveness is a journey. Forgiveness is never easy, but we all would want a second chance.

***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Lee Strobel’s the Case for Christ – A Commentary

Not too long ago, Anne Rice, horror author of Interview with a Vampire, released a book entitled Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, a novel about Jesus' life at age 7. During the course of her research, the one-time Catholic turned atheist, her spiritual journey took a different twist. After compulsive study, the historicity of Christ’s resurrection became hard to deny. She then found herself re-connecting with her faith.

Her story parallels the journey of journalist-turned-author-turned-evangelist Lee Strobel as his best-selling book The Case for Christ has been made into a DVD. Strobel, too, was a one-time committed atheist, set out to investigate the claims and history of Jesus Christ and during the course of his journey converted to Christianity. He brought to bear his journalistic tools and investigated the claims of the Christian faith.

The Case for Christ is a documentary that would have made a good story. It’s almost like the faith it dissects: facts vs. the conveyance of those facts (though it would be hard to imagine a movie of this that didn’t have a lot of exposition, but that’s neither here nor there). As a part of his investigation, he sought out the experts and weighed their opinions. He examined the eye witness testimony, the nature of oral tradition, the corroboration outside of the original copies/documentation, and the historical Jesus, including his claims to be God as well as his miracles.

The Case for Christ has too much of a talking heads structure to it, broken up only by dramatic shots of Lee Strobel continuously crossing the street. It’s the kind of thing you’d watch as the intro to a book study. That being said, it brings up a lot of good things to consider.

Skepticism wormed its way into the fabric of our culture, including church so the idea of a logical and rational “case” leading to faith doesn’t surprise me. The beautiful thing about faith is that we’re continually trying to figure things out. You can have all the facts you want, you can debate facts, and, frankly, you ought to. Faith doesn’t mean the turning off of one’s brain: things should make sense and continual questioning is a valid exercise unto itself.

It’s like having faith isn’t enough. It has to be reasoned, defended logically, with everything dissected, taken apart and put back together in some sort of systematic structure. Faith imbues facts with meaning, or, better said, it’s hard to get to the truth of the Christian faith through objectivity. Sometimes faith means that we have to come to the conclusion that we don’t have many things figured out. That we have to learn to get comfortable with that and the idea of mystery (read: the great “I don’t know”). Some people need proof, although miracles in the age of David Blaine and CGI is not going to impress me.

The film is also an introduction to apologetics (the pragmatic defense of Christianity), useful to folks just learning to articulate a cohesive defense of their faith. (I’ve never been one for defending “the faith”: if “the faith” needs me to defend it, we’re all in a lot of trouble. Plus, I’m more of an experiential guy at this point in my walk, not so much about documentation). My apologetics are pretty basic. The apologetics of man: using women as witnesses in an age where they had next to zero credibility, having a conspiracy where no one talks/leaks, people dying for what they know to be a lie, the growth of Christianity in face of adversity. I believe people to be, well, people, and this goes against my experience of how people operate. The apologetics of transformation: I need to see a change, the fruit of evidence in the lives of those impacted by it. This would still be along my experiential model in that I need to see truth lived out because truth has a personal and social dimension to it. In this same vein, the Church is seen as a treatment center, giving a kind of “chemo” against an insidious cancer that afflicts us all.

I also appreciate an apologetics of love:

The irony of Christian love is that it is characterized by self-donation; it gives itself up to find itself. A love-centered rationality will have as its character an appropriate humility, a personal and social situatedness that takes human embodiment seriously (i.e., it is not a disembodied rationality) within an over-arching Gospel narrative and, above all, is characterized by an interest in the welfare and perspective of others.

And there is room for the kind of apologetics along the lines of The Case for Christ. In this modern age of rationality and scientific methods, it is no surprise people of faith want to take up the same tools to defend themselves, especially after being demeaned as unthinking people. For people going through a doubting phase, this sort of approach tends to help them.

The bottom line is that when it comes to our spiritual journeys, we need to investigate for ourselves. Have an open mind and go where the evidence takes you. There’s no such thing as a cookie cutter faith: each journey looks different and we ought to give each other the freedom to explore as we need to. You may not find the answer to every question or know who was right on every issue; that’s not the point. It’s the journey that counts. Love and do your best and trust that God will help you work out the rest.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Season One and Two) – A Review

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is the kind of comedy that makes you squirm with discomfort. The kind of cringefest that makes shows like The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Arrested Development. The characters are wrong (ignorant), selfish, insensitive, and vacuous (no convictions beyond getting laid or making money). They collide in a train wreck of personal situations as they reveal themselves to be … who they really are. It’s Seinfeld in the extreme and we laugh along to their absolute wrongness.

“This isn’t a morality contest.” –Charlie

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia follows the exploits of three self-absorbed high school friends -- Charlie (Charlie Day), Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Mac (Rob McElhenney) – now twentysomethings who own a neighborhood bar along with Dennis' sister, Dee (Kaitlin Olson).

The show is not afraid to mine comedy from taboos. Racism, incest, homophobia, abortion, child molestation, underage drinking, statutory rape, cancer – you get the idea. In so doing, there is a realness to the show because real life is awkward and uncomfortable. It’s both familiar and absurd, in other words, a dark reflection of us.

“Take a look at yourself, bro.” –Mac

At its heart, the show is about people’s inability to be authentic, with themselves or with one another. What they say, who they hang around, what they wear, how they act, about their relationships, they are mired in a non-reflective mindset and trapped by their social ineptness as they try to dodge the inevitable consequences of their cluelessness

They are at the fun stage of life where they struggle with issues of self-image (many of them uncomfortable in their own skins), where they fit in the social order, wrestling with their idea of self-identity, and dealing with feelings of alienation. They’ve been burned by some community (family, a circle of friends, a church … did I mention family?) and are tired of not fitting in, of being rejected, of not being accepted. They put up these “harsh”, abrasive fronts, of the mostly bark/little bite variety, that mask their insecurity.

They seek a place where they can belong, a community whey they can live their often uncomfortable lives. In other words, they are like the rest of us: looking for authenticity, looking for acceptance, on their terms.

“I don’t know what God wants for us … He works bigger than that.” –Dee

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is painfully universal. We’ve all been there. We’ve all been “that guy” (or “that girl”), somewhat pathetic, though often meaning well. And while hilarious in a “I’m gonna feel bad about this later” sort of way (with a Fawlty Towers feel to it if you want an old school comparison), there is a line it treads where the show could just flat out be mean-spirited. Sometimes, if you don’t wince, you may want to adjust your moral compass.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

30 Days of Night – A Review

“28 Vampires Later”

Good vampire flicks can still be made. I’m not necessarily looking for Citizen Kane, I don’t even need brooding romantic figures (please, spare me anymore emo vamps). I’m talking something dark, brutal, and efficient, a la Near Dark. I’m not even a gorehound, but I know what I want from certain movies.

Based on the eponymous comic book by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, 30 Days of Night follows a set of vampires who besiege the small, isolated town of Barrow, Alaska, during the month of no sun. The constantly shrieking bunch of vampires is commanded by Marlow (Danny Huston), in full pasty Euro-trash mode as they launch into a full-scale slaughter of the town. The Gary Cooper-esque sheriff, Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett ), leads the surviving, though equally pasty, townsfolk.

A lot of the blunt, visceral action is reminiscent of 28 Days Later (even the look of the blood-drenched vamps with their maws of incisors are more zombie-like). The similarities are made moreso by the jittery camera work that conveys the frenetic speed, strength and thirstiness of the violent night wraiths. The vivid images flash by so that you can’t take in the entirety of the horror, all done to a jarring, amelodic soundtrack.

“Folks have a hard enough time in the dark.” –Lucy Ikos (Elizabeth Hawthorne)

30 Days of Night boils down to being a tale of survival during an undead apocalypse. It seems like all of the forces of creation are lined up against the surviving batch of humanity. First from the vampires themselves, this outside evil—the supernatural other of powers and principalities. As Marlow relaties, it took them centuries to make people believe they were little more than bad dreams and the reality of them would be too great and cause people to actively fight against them. Second, Nature itself. The night and the cold, though perfectly inherent to the system, now seem allied against them. Thirdly, they have to wrestle with themselves. Their very natures, including their weakness, from cowardice to selfishness, provide constant obstacles for them. And yet, through all of this, they fight to keep their humanity or, more specifically, what makes them human.

“That cold ain’t the weather. That’s Death approaching.” – The Stranger (Ben Foster)

Preceding the arrival of the vampires is their brown-toothed forerunner, a John the Baptist-type preparing the way for them by helping to further isolate the town. All of his actions are in the hope of the reward of eternal life through the power of blood promised to him and we all learn the lesson of being careful who you put your faith in.

“There is no escape. No hope. Only pain and death.” –Marlow

What was attempted, with mixed result, was presenting the idea of vampires as the ultimate nihilists. For them, the world, especially the bulk of human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. And that neither God nor a "true morality" exists, leaving Marlow to proselytize “God? No God” when a woman cries out for divine intervention. As such, they leave a bloody wake as they merrily trip through life seeking to sate their pleasures. So what the movie truly seems to be about is the idea of unchecked freedom.

Barrow represents a smorgasbord for the blood-dining crown. They can roam about at will, eat from a buffet line of trailer homes, and basically give into their gluttony and excess. Their lives are reduced to wild, wanton wastes of wants and needs, being driven solely by desires, much like children without any parental supervision.

“When a man meets a force he can’t destroy, he destroys himself instead.” –Marlow

Self-control and restraint are the sphere of adults. Lust burns hot until it burns through and burns out. There’s a reason people live by laws, not so much to restrain freedom but to serve as guard rails. A guard rail won’t keep you from going over the edge, but it provides a line to help people stay on the best side for them and help them not abuse the gift of their freedom.

“I just couldn’t stand being on my own.” –Billy Kitka (Manu Bennett)

Lastly, the movie is about the nature of community and love. It is a story of continual self-sacrifice, of one man laying down his life for his brother, continuous acts of love staving off the darkness for another day. Each action serves to remind folks that they are still connected. The epitome of such sacrifice arrives when Eben takes on the burden of blood, taking the evil onto him, bearing the brunt of it, sacrificing himself to defeat evil. The ultimate salvation in the sun’s light; until then, we just reflect it as best we can.

30 Days of Night suffers mostly from its episodic feel (the slow stretches as we wait for the next batch of townfolks to end up as snackables) and the unrelenting bleakness of the story. We don’t care about any of the characters, not even the supposed romantic tension between the sheriff and his estranged-but-conveniently-stranded wife, Stella (Melissa George). Despite the arterial sprays (not having seen this much since the first Kill Bill), the movie actually fails to mine the true horror, as no one wrestles with the moral dilemmas of their actions or doing what they have to do to survive. In other words, while there is plenty of vampire romp, there’s not enough of a human element to draw us in.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Life – A Review

The new Fall television season is upon us and, as expected as the routine of having to rake leaves, with it comes the familiar spate of police procedurals. Not that you could tell from the title—nor could you tell much of anything else about the show from its unfortunate title—but Life is one of them. Detective Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) has his share of quirks, from his constant eating of fresh fruit to his constant Zen-commentary. So much so, one feels this show is misplaced not being on the USA channels lineup of detective shows: Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Psyche, Monk. Despite the competition, Crews is easily one of television’s most fascinating characters.

Having spent the last 12 years in prison set up for a crime he was exonerated for, Crews (through convoluted premise-generating events) ends up back on the LAPD, though a lot wealthier for his troubles (thus justifying Adam Arkin’s return to series television as his one-time cell mate and now money manager, Ted Earley). The slightly troubled Crews, whom no one wishes to partner with, is nonetheless saddled with a partner equally in need of redemption, Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi). All of this going on while 1) a film crew does documentary-style interviews about the Crews case and 2) Crews is secretly trying to ferret out the conspirators that framed him in the first place.

“Life was his sentence and life is what he got back.” –Constance Griffith (Brooke Langton) “What do you think he should do with that life?” (interviewer)
“That would be up to him.”

One of the intriguing aspects to Crews’ character is observing how much prison life has affected him, especially in regards to how he pursues his calling of being a police officer. Besides being over a decade behind in technology, he still carries with him all the lessons of surviving in prison now that he’s back on the street.

People so often find themselves on a spiritual path once they find themselves in prison is because they look around and see the consequences of living life their way on their terms. Prison is the ultimate end of self. It’s when we’ve reached the end of our rope and hope. When we’ve seen where life has gotten us under our own efforts. When we see the bars/cages of our life for what they are. When we’ve completely bottomed out. With prison, we have nothing but time and are forced to be alone. We have to face our inner noise, without all of the distractions that comes from our hollow pursuits. In Crews’ case, he turned to Zen in order to make sense of his place in the world. But, as Lt. Karen Davis (Robin Weigert) points out, “You don’t have to go to prison to eat crap.”

“Tell me something that means something.” –grieving victim

What does life boil down to? What’s really important? These are the important questions we have to meditate on in order to find meaning for ourselves. Sometimes the answer comes in the simplest question, as Crews asks: “Anyone ever love you that much?” To take a bullet for you, to give you life, to sacrifice themselves so that you may find your true purpose for being. When Crews is asked by a grieving crime victim “How did you go on living? How did you get past it?”, the answers sound easier than they are. You’re already past it. We’re to be fully alive, in the moment, living the life we ought to be living.

It’s good to see quality writing and complicated characters taking the front seat in hour long dramas. The ever-present danger is that quirks become caricatures and characters become cartoons. So far, so good though and after only a few episodes, Life has found its rhythm. In fact, it’s easy to say that Life is one of the pleasant surprises of the Fall.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

What’s In It for Me?

I’ve been wondering why I try to be a good person. As a friend of mine recently pointed out, morality is not the point of religion. I’m no Ayn Rand-ian, but if I remove God from the equation of my life, then the question I’m left asking about existence is "what’s in it for me?"

When I ask "what’s in it for me?" I’m basically outlining what my philosophy of life would be without Christ. I know because I know me and it’s the question I most naturally ask before I remember that life’s not about me. At my core, I’m basically a selfish person. It’s not like I have a fear of breaking laws. It’s not like I have a natural bent towards fidelity or even monogamy.

I’ve called myself a Christian for a long time. Twenty some odd years later, I just now feel like I’m getting the grasp of some of it. Which means that I cringe when I look back at some of my previous stances and beliefs, things I KNEW with absolute CERTAINTY.

It’s one reason why I find it difficult to point to a person’s failings and say "some Christian (Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, what have you) they are. They are just another hypocrite." On one level, that’s true. However, I try to allow the grace of "where would they be if they weren’t trying to pursue their spiritual journey?" Some people are lousy Christians, I say as I look in the mirror. Some people are louse "-ists" of all stripes.

Sure, to some I seem to be pursuing "being good" because of some imaginary guy in the sky tells me to. When all is said and done, I’m little different than them. Pursuing an idea, an ideal, larger than myself – and doing the best I can with as much as I understand.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

On Communion

When I was asked to say a few thing about communion, the first thing I asked myself was why do we do it? Is it simply a part of the weekly ritual of The Dwelling Place: we sing, recite creeds, pray, listen to "He Who Would Be Head Pastor", do communion, and eat? Or is there a unifying essence to each of these rituals as activities that help shape and form us?

I know people are going to get sick of hearing me say this, but I believe that people like the idea of community, but they don’t like putting in the work to build community. Communion is part of our work, both our easiest task and our toughest.

It is a source of unity for us, drawing us together as a body, binding us to the historic and universal church, and reminding us of who we are as a family (and I do see church as a family and our Sunday morning gatherings as a family reunion). It’s a living remembrance of why we come together and points to our future hope.

At the same time, it’s one of the toughest parts of our gathering. It’s a time of reflection and soul searching. Time between each of us and God as we examine our hearts and our relationship with Him. We examine our relationships with those around (and there are times I can’t take communion because of a relationship not being as it should). In this way, communion continues God’s mission of reconciliation: first between us and Him then between us and each other.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom." –Matthew 26:26-29

In remembrance of Him.

***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Horror Premises: White People are You Kidding Me?

So the other day, Chesya and I got in an argument (How many blogs need to begin "So me and Chesya got in an argument"?). As is common among writers, we spend a lot of time reading each other’s manuscripts before they’re sent them out (I’ve mentioned a couple of my own first readers). Well, this friend of ours had a novel whose premise we had issue with. A single guy inherits a house from someone, though he has no idea who. He enters the 100+ year old house and, after looking around, a door materializes in front of him. He then goes through it.

He goes through it.

Our issue was a matter of believability. Who would actually go through that door? It’s the same sort of question we have to ask ourselves as writers: what would characters believably do in a given situation. But let me tell you, I just ain’t that curious (I know what you’re asking, if we’re in agreement, how was there an argument? Well, that’s just me and Chesya). She began an informal survey of her friends and family. A disturbing pattern began to emerge.
Her white friends would go through the door and her black friends/family would not.

I found that hard to believe. So I decided to do my own part in researching this racial divide. To my shock and horror, I found similar results. My family, well, we’re selling the house and pocketing the money. I asked my white co-worker ("Of course you go through it"). I called some white friends of mine. To a person, they were going through the door. Flabbergasted (and it’s not often a brotha gets flabbergasted), I turned to my white people voices of reason. First, my message board moderator, Lauren David:

Lauren: I’m torn.
Me: I’m one of your best friends, right?
Lauren: Right.
Me: My sister is one of your dearest friends, right?
Lauren: Right.
Me: Has NONE of this rubbed off on you?
Lauren: I said I’m torn.

Second, I then ask my wife of seven plus years. Seven plus years of living with black folk. She comes back with "you at least have to open it." (For the record, she spent the rest of the evening trying to justify it. "If you’re trying to sell the place, you don’t want the door just popping up." "It’s okay, honey, cling to your whiteness. It’s your cultural imperative.")

White people, are you kidding me?

The other day I was out with some volunteers from Outreach, Inc. looking to help some homeless teenagers. At one point, they start running. So I ran, passed them, then asked what they were running for. They said the hill we were walking down got muddy so they tried to get through it quickly. They asked why I ran. I said "black reflex": folks start running, I run and ask questions later. You can believe we didn’t do a Wrong Turn 2 and decide to split up (much less the only black guy in the party deciding to go investigate any strange sounds all by himself).
I even got to wondering how soon would some horror movies end if it had an all black cast:

-What’s that dude in the hockey mask doing? Am I the only person simply not that curious? How many black folks do you see at a hockey game? Credits start rolling.

-The Haunting of Hill House? I ain’t gonna lie: noisy houses, doors that don’t shut right, plumbing don’t work, and the super can’t be found? Someone tweaks and then freaks out? That’s just a day in the life. Credits start rolling.

-I just buried my cat in this hidden graveyard and it came back to life. For sale sign goes up and the credits start rolling.

White people are you kidding me?

How did you ever end up colonizing the world? Will someone explain this to me? I guess it pays to know your audience. Consider this the flip side to the writing the other dilemma.

***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Circus Blues

I never experienced nostalgia for the circus. It was something I was dragged to because my parents assumed it was something "the kids would love." So about a month ago I passed along that family tradition.

People talk about the magic of the circus the same way I think about the magic of childbirth -- if by magic they mean dirty, grimy and far different from what you see on television.

Continued in Intake's "Big drag in 3 rings"


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Life in the Meadows

"If Indianapolis hopes to stem rising crime, it can't afford to ignore Edgemere Court or neighborhoods like it. City officials and community leaders must step up and sustain efforts to sweep away the mayhem and urban decay. As The Star's Matthew Tully reports this week in a three-part series on Edgemere Court, the lack of concentrated effort is one reason why squalor continues to plague this neighborhood and other parts of the city. Community policing, which is a key in uniting residents and police officers in fighting crime, has fallen by the wayside. Job-training courses, mental health services and other programs once provided to Phoenix's tenants by its former owner, are no longer available."

My sister used to live in the Meadows for a time. She was in the middle of doing her "prodigal child" routine, but I still wanted to keep in touch with her, but I would only visit her only during the day. The level of squalor present, the sheer decay, represented an experiment gone bad. From the rampant crime, to the structural rot, to the entrenched poverty, society had turned its collective back on a portion of itself.

It was a symptom of a self-perpetuating problem. We need to address these problem areas aggressively rather than letting them fester and, in turn, become worse. Most of the solutions people seem to have amount to tear such places down or remodel the neighborhoods and have new people move in. Unfortunately, this amounts to little more than moving the problem rather than deal with it – kind of like chasing the homeless from downtown. We’re talking about a human problem requiring human solution and human connection.

There’s a perception that the poor want to live like this, that they are there because they are lazy or are there strictly as the result of their choices. The reality is that most want to transition out of the streets, from this way of life, but they were let down, if not abandoned, by the system.
How we treat the poor defines us as a culture and as a country. I believe that government needs to assist those unable to take care of themselves, but is that where we are and what we’ve been reduced to? I have to be honest in saying that a system that supports dependency without accountability hurts any community, especially a community burdened by institutionalized racism. The programs on the surface seem to help poor people. The intentions were good, but the solution and remedy was short-sighted.

God identifies with the poor and those in pain, liberating them from injustice. It's the hope that says just as He reached out to the forgotten, those "outside" the establishment (religious or civil), we are to care for the "least of these", widows, orphans, the poor. Our mission is to join with His, to relieve suffering and fight injustice because evil is real and ongoing. And our forgetting of the poor is just that: a preventable evil.

It’s easy to blame the poor. They are under-represented. There aren’t many political action committees, few professional lobbying, publicists in the media on their behalf. I can’t help but be reminded of Jesus’ words "the poor you will always have with you." Jesus’ story is the story of poverty: God humbling himself, becoming poor and weak. Human. In order to free the oppressed from poverty and powerlessness. Becomes a victim in our place (at the hands of a corrupt justice system no less) and transforms the condition of bondage. That doesn’t mean we get to simply quit caring about the poor.

***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Friday Night Date Place – For the Love of Money

There are plenty of conversations that need to be had and issues to be worked out when you're dating. For example, as the relationship gets more serious, you have to start working out matters of money. If you're talking about taking on another person's financial burdens/debts, etc. and if one of you is a lousy worker or neither of you is great with handling money, that's going to stress out a relationship to the breaking point. The number one thing that married couples fight about is money.

Money equals security. Money equals the ability to function independently within society. Money equals the power to support oneself and create stability for your family. The lack of it stresses out a relationship.

You’d think this was a marriage topic, however, with more people opting to move in together, money becomes a bigger potential pitfall for couples. Co-mingling funds, buying houses together, or any other business type arrangement often become messy entanglements. Plus, women typically come out on the wrong financial end of a break up after moving in together.

Here are a few things to look out for and/or discuss:

-how does your significant other handle bills and debt (you HAVE to discuss debt to realistically assess your situation)

-how does your significant other budget and balance a check book

-accountability: does your significant other have trouble taking responsibility for their actions or are their misfortunes everyone else’s fault?

-an inability to hold down a job. Again, this points to their ability to sustain stability and be dependable. Along these lines, do they run through a series of jobs or work the wrong kind of jobs? After all, even though life does happen, there are career jobs and there are stop gap jobs. Sometimes it’s a matter of doing what you have to do and other times it’s doing as little as possible to get by. Know the difference.

-irresponsible spending or what I call the "magic bean" philosophy. If they are prone to spend their entire check on books, alcohol, or Magic cards (uh, I’m just saying – but I was single then) rather than gas or groceries, you will have problems in your future.

-long-term thinking. Folks need direction and a plan. Beyond just the immediate needs of sustaining a family, there are issues like retirement, savings, and college funds to think about.

Above all, the end goal is that you don’t want to end up with a sponge/leech masquerading as an equal partner.

My wife and I have had basically two conversations about money: one where she confessed how in debt she was (at which point I told her that I crap bigger debt than she has - and it took us a couple of years to get to zero debt); and two when we decided she should handle the day-to-day bills (cause I have a lot of … quirks when it comes to mail/bills). It helps if at least one partner is good at handling money (or if one concedes that they suck at it).

Money issues shouldn't be embarassing to discuss (pride is a big obstacle in these discussions). Just about everyone could stand to learn more about how money, especially their money, works.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

The Preaching Trough

There is an aspect of Evangelical Christian culture that is pure delight and that’s the idea of being hooked on the idea of "being fed". Being "fed" is insider lingo referring to how much information you take in (as infants in Christ "I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready." –I Corinthians 3:2). So surely the mark of a maturing believer is their capacity for solid food, real meaty sermons.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve become knowledge crackheads.

In the extremes, some churches have trouble getting volunteers because their members don’t want to miss their fix. The real shame is that a lot of the time it’s a matter of being pumped up about things that they already know. Much like the conservative radio phenomena, folks mostly just want to be affirmed about what they already know and think. Challenged by way of reminder. For some folks it’s a matter of being creatures of habit and when searching for a new church, "being fed" is what they’re used to.


Don’t get me wrong: you NEED to be fed. My issue is with pew potatoes: people who simply consume more and more information, being entertained by preaching that tickles their ears, growing fat in their seats. It leads to a head knowledge based faith that tends to make us self-focused ("What did I get from this?") and gives us ammunition for our judgmentalism (conceit, laziness, and intellectual snobbery).


How good is more facts for the promotion of fellowship, building the body into a community, spiritual formation, or otherwise being transformative? These are the kind of things we have to examine. Because a lot of the time, we aren’t really even getting the knowledge: after ten bullet/application points, we barely remember what we’ve been taught, we’re rarely diligent enough to apply it, and a lot of the evidence around us shows that we aren’t living out what we know. So we have to keep asking "how do we keep people in the process of being formed into disciples of Christ?"


Our culture has turned folks into consumers, in this case, of religion and our churches have largely obliged them. We’re to be cultivators of the spiritual life, in the process of continual conversion to be the people who are the Gospel. I’ve found that when you are living out your faith, you don’t have time for the intellectual preening that gets us spiritually slothful and judgmental. Instead, we’re more fit, that is, fit to serve.


So quit treating church like a buffet.



***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Wrong Turn 2 – A Review

I know what you’re thinking: just how many unanswered questions could there possibly have been from the first Wrong Turn? I know, I know. Wrong Turn 2 continues the movie franchise which is the latest incarnation of the slasher film sub-genre of horror movie. Franchises like Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and, more importantly, their derivative knock offs are the kinds of empty story-telling people think of when they think of horror. They are relatively inexpensive to make, thus easy to make their money back, and there is an audience who gets off on such cheap thrills.

The premise, such as it is, approaches something clever: a group of reality game show contestants compete in the woods to see who will be the "survivor" of an imagined apocalypse. Then they are hunted one by one by a family of inbred hillbilly cannibals. So, obviously this is a Merchant Ivory production released just in time for Oscar consideration.

"It’s funny, cause you never know when your life’s gonna change." –Jake (Texas Battle)

The movie works by the kind of rules deconstructed in the Scream movie franchise (You may not survive the movie if you have sex. You may not survive the movie if you drink or do drugs. You may not survive the movie if you say "I'll be right back." You may not survive the movie if you ask "Who's there?" You shouldn't go out to investigate a strange noise if you wish to survive.). We’re given clichés as characters: the soldier babe (lesbian, of course), the male chauvinist jerk, the athlete, the Hollywood diva, the Girl Next Door.

Thus half the time the movie comes across like some sort of crazed Old Testament-styled punisher of sins—sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, unfaithfulness, making gods of themselves—with the cannibal family being instruments of God’s wrath. (The movie even carries its own social message: take care of our environment because poisoning it has its consequences. Granted, among such unintended consequences could be more of these movies, so for the love of God, PLEASE RECYCLE!!!)

"I’m thrilled that I actually get to live another day." –Mara (Aleksa Palladino)

At its core, horror is about fear, an attempt to get a cathartic release from dealing with what scares us - be it the unknown or ultimately, our fear of death. Life is unpredictable, out of our control, and death possibly lurks around every corner, bush, or wrong turn. While the premise of the game (the game being a metaphor for life—if we want to speak of this movie in terms of ideas like "metaphor") is about survival of the fittest, the lesson driven home is that no one can go through life on their own. Surviving on your own, in isolation, eventually leads to one’s deformity, as illustrated by the hillbilly cannibals. Yes, I’ve just used the phrase "hillbilly cannibals" as a metaphor of the destruction brought about by believing the lie of hyper-individualism. My job here is done.

Alright, you know what you are getting into when you decide to go see a Wrong Turn 2. It’s slasher flick by numbers. No surprises, not even in the creativity of the impalements that passes for its plot. You get what you rented it for: forgettable thrills.

***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Act of Contrition – A Review

Written by: Nik Havert
Art by: Wes Sweetser
Published by: Pickle Press

I’m in a real independent comic book mood. Brian Michael Bendis (Powers, House of M), among others, got his start in indy books (Torso and Jinx). And those were the books that immediately came to mind when I first opened Pickle Press’ crime noir, Act of Contrition.

Act of Contrition is a mystery involving a crime spree and the suspicious comings and goings, centering around a church. It’s a straight procedural, where we learn nothing about the protagonists, but are engaged by the fast pace of the story. Mind you, this story uses more black ink than a Sin City story. If I have one general issue with the book, it’s that there needed to be clearer lettering/word balloon placement in order to make dialogue easier to follow.

"The law doesn’t recognize the supernatural. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but there aren’t any laws that deal with this sort of thing." –Det. Stuart

Granted, the story pushed one of my buttons (and it was supposed to, so Havert did his job). The Church makes for an easy target villain, with the evil priest having become such a cliché because it is rare that anyone does anything interesting or balanced with it.

Some of the bitterness towards the church is more than understandable. Besides its spotty record in the annals of history, it has propped itself up as moral authority so we expect better of it, but its scandals constantly keep making the headlines. We have this sense of betrayal from an institution we put our trust in. However, my contention has been that people can cloak themselves in the church (or religion) to cover their misdeeds, but that no more makes them holy than wrapping yourself in the flag makes you a patriot.

"Put your faith in God. He brought you through this trial, have faith that He will bring you through another." –priest

The Act of Contrition is a prayer recited by the penitent during the Catholic sacrament of Confession:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who are all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen.

Donald Miller, in his wonderful book Blue Like Jazz, tells the story of the time he and his small band of Christian friends built a confession booth on the campus of Reed College, "the college where students are most likely to ignore God." The story picks up like this:

"We are not actually going to accept confessions." We all looked at him in confusion. He continued, "We are going to confess to them. We are going to confess that, as followers of Jesus, we have not been very loving; we have been bitter, and for that we are sorry. We will apologize for the Crusades, we will apologize for televangelists, we will apologize for neglecting the poor and the lonely, we will ask them to forgive us, and we will tell them that in our selfishness, we have misrepresented Jesus on this campus. We will tell people who come into the booth that Jesus loves them." ... I wanted so desperately to apologize for the many ways I had misrepresented the Lord. I could feel that I had betrayed the Lord by judging, by not being willing to love the people he had loved and only giving lip service to issues of human rights ... "There's a lot. I will keep it short," I started. "Jesus said to feed the poor and to heal the sick. I have never done very much about that. Jesus said to love those who persecute me. I tend to lash out, especially if I feel threatened, you know, if my ego gets threatened. Jesus did not mix his spirituality with politics. I grew up doing that. It got in the way of the central message of Christ. I know that was wrong, and I know that a lot of people will not listen to the words of Christ because people like me, who know him, carry our own agendas into the conversation rather than just relaying the message Christ wanted to get across. There's a lot more, you know."

And I guess I would echo Miroslav Volf when he said that "I am not a Christian because of the church, but because of the gospel. However, it was only through the broken church that I received the gospel. Because of the gospel, I participate in the church."

Act of Contrition is rough, but a solid read. Hopefully some of the detectives can be more fleshed out and brought back for another case. Comic books need more tales of the non-spandex (super-hero) variety and tales of our humanity being explored.

***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Dust - A Review

Written by: Alan Close
Art by: Alan Close
Published by: Dust Press

"Fire from Heaven"

Dust is about conversations. Dust is about entertainment that inspires. Dust is about stories that are so relevant they have spoken to thoughtful people for thousands of years. Dust is about generations of people sharing and exploring the meaning and purpose of life. Dust is about where you came from and where you are going. Dust is part of your life.

I’m always hesitant to review things that are explicitly "Christian." My two concerns were 1) that far too many Christians create this bubble for themselves and are content to stay there, when our calling is exactly the opposite.; and 2) that when message is placed ahead of the art, you produce propaganda, not something honest. And when the word "Christian" is used as an adjective, to me, it signals more of the ghetto mentality. That’s my prejudice.

The idea of adapting Bible stories is cool; there are plenty of stories there to mine. Plus, it reminds me of the tradition of targums, any of several explanatory translations, paraphrasing, or interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures. The key is to not be afraid to be creative with characters or perspective. It will remove the temptation to stick verses in characters mouths and call it dialogue. In short, stray from the strictures of "Scripture". Allow for the fact that working in a different media will mean changes have to occur and realize that, like with Lord of the Rings, your changes will not stop the more zealous to shout "heresey". Tell the story through a new character’s eyes and still stay true to the spirit of the story. A good adaptation will make people seek out the source material.

All that being said, Dust wasn’t what I feared it might be. Its moody art was reminiscent of Mike Mignola on Hellboy. The writing, while still tending toward too much exposition, shows promise. So the series has potential, I just hope the creators won’t be afraid to fully explore it.

We’ve created an entire sub-culture in our wake so that no one has to go outside the church for anything. We can service the Christian ghetto (when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have minded reading this while sitting in a pew while the sermon was going on) or we can aim to have truly engaging conversations with people.

I guess it boils down to who you want to have the conversations with.

***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Spiritual Teenagers

I’ve never been good with teenagers. I live in a state of constant dread of the day I have to raise them, which is why I’ve been laying the groundwork early with my two boys (starting conversations now that we can continue to have until they lose their minds in their teenage years). Whenever ministry opportunities come up where I have to work with teens, I generally eschew them.


I think that’s why when folks reach the "teenage" phase of their spiritual walk, I tend to get a little frustrated with them. I know, I know, we don’t often read of the teenage phase of our spiritual walks. We are told we’re to be child like ("He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’" –Matthew 18:2-4) not childish ("When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." --I Corinthians 13:11-12). But there’s got to be some sort of transitional steps between being children (though keeping the child-like sense of awe, wonder, and appreciation of mystery) and having a mature faith.


I’m dubbing these knucklehead times our teenage walk.


As a child, your parents know everything. Then as you get older, become a teenager, your parents don’t seem to know anything. As you mature into adulthood, your parents suddenly seem to know a little more again. Or, to quote Mark Twain: "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."


So as we grow about maturing in our faith, I suppose there must come a time when we are in our awkward teen years. Possibly marked by


-an attitude that plays out in a practical way as "I don’t truly want to think through my faith – I just want to rebel against everything I’ve been taught"
-general issues with authority, from pastors to the Bible to anything resembling leadership or accountability
-cynicism to the point of abandoning
-a chip on the shoulder aspect to their interactions


It would be easy to dismiss it as the equivalent of a spiritual temper tantrum. However, being reckless in so many things, wanting to experience everything, jumping off cliffs (often landing on rocks) is sometimes the only way many of us can learn.


The journey inward is part of the progress. You have to stick to it. Some people compare this time to God actually "giving" you more responsibility by not guiding you by the hand any more. Kind of like a parent with a teenager, how dealing with them is akin to handling a wet bar of soap: you want to keep them in your hand, but the best way to do so is in a loose grip because the harder you hold onto them the more likely they will just squeeze out. Discipleship present traditions of faith. Help people think through faith not tell them what IS the faith.


Give them room to go and explore where they need to go, but continue to be present in their lives (in order to be a guard rail). We know the signs of maturing: an increase in humility and teachability; the acknowledgment of the need for help. In the meantime, we need to keep the lines of communication open. Let them come to you and, more importantly, be there for them when they do. At least that’s the theory I’m going with.

Not that I've ever been one or anything.


***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Circle City Holidays

There are three official black holidays*: Kwanzaa, Juneteenth, and Circle City Classic weekend. I pretty much block out my entire day in order to fully partake in the ritual activities - beginning first thing in the morning with the Circle City Classic Parade. Dozens of local and national marching bands, repleat with dancers and twirlers** drew thousands of folks to downtown Indianapolis.

As always, the crowd is always my favorite part of the parade. Audience participation ranged from welcoming each parade car, carefully labeled with the name of the occupant. For example, "Hey Mitch!" greeted our man Governor Mitch Daniels (and we’re polite too, welcoming even the unsung heroes: "Hey, Driver!"). We learned that Darrin Henson’s (from Soul Food and Stomp the Yard) car should never stop. He got mobbed by adoring fans.

My children’s favorite float, Garfield, sported a gangsta lean and his car bounced like it had bad hydraulics.


The battle of the bands didn’t feel like much of a battle. Florida A&M’s Marching 100 took the streets like the Persian army in 300 (too bad Winston-Salem’s football team defeated Florida A&M 27-23).

We decided to make a day of it and go to the Greek Stepdown that evening (skipping the game, because, well, a brother’s between pay days). For the uninitiated, stepping is a tradition of black Greek organizations dating as far back as the 1900s. Step shows combine stomping, clapping, dancing, chants and music and tell the history and values behind the fraternities and sororities. These affairs feature members of the "Divine Nine" (the nine historically black fraternities and sororities).

Security was in effect. The last time I was at the convention center, it was for GenCon and I didn’t even have to check my light saber. The good news is that my prostate is clean (although, a guard did take a look at one young lady’s outfit and said "you ain’t hiding anything. Go ahead.")

The Army Elite Step Team set things off, for real, setting a high standard for the night’s competition. Unlike previous years, there was not a single dud performance, though I will say that the step show is like the NBA dunk contest: I don’t mind props, but if you’re going to use them, give us a show. (And there are probably STILL some Omegas on stage from the roll call.) Hands down, however, the winner was the Memoirs of Devastating Divas routine of the Deltas.

The Circle City Classic represents millions to the city and is every bit an institutional part of our culture as a city and as a people. It’s a showcase of hope also: young black men and women coming together in a celebration of their college fraternities and sororities. History, tradition, and education celebrated and venerated. That sounds like exactly the type of values our city should be modeling as a beacon of light for our future.

*Let’s face it, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr has become everyone’s day and Indiana Black Expo is more a way of life.

**Big girls represent! I know they want to put you in spandex, stick you in the back, make you jump around, twirl the flag, break down some steps, then make you drop into the splits. But you don’t let it slow your roll. You know that you define beauty. Go ‘head with your fine selves.

***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Big Pimpin

Just a reminder, this month I am the featured writer on Apex Online. You not only get an interview of me, but also a free story ("In the Shadows of Meido" – originally published in IDW Publications comic book line).

Plus , go to my web site and sign up for my newsletter. I’ll be announcing some giveaways and other such splendidness soon.

***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.

Friday Night Date Place: Fidelity Tastes Like Chicken

A couple days ago I was approached by someone who struggled with issues of fidelity within his marriage. I ain’t going to lie: this has always been a struggle area for me, and because I’m pretty vocal about it, it was probably one of the reasons he came to me.

One of the reasons faithfulness can be so tricky is because the heart is a wildfire that needs to be checked. Emotions go where emotions go, if you let them, but this leads into my “love is more than a feeling, it’s a choice” rant. However, his issues were more on point, a “temptation of the flesh” as he put it. (As an aside, I love it when people speak like this. It’s such a more spiritual sounding obfuscation for “I’m horny and I’m always trying to push up on women”).

His parting comment as he laid out his dilemma was “I like lobster, but I can’t have lobster every day.”

Marriage is a lifetime commitment. That’s forever for at least one of you. Marriage is a sacrifice of yourself for the sake of another. You surrender your personal rights as you strive to please another. Marriage is risk. There is no guarantee of happiness or fulfillment. You are always vulnerable to heartache or heartbrokenness. No one can hurt you the way, nor as deeply, a spouse can. I have to remind myself, and recommit myself, to one simple fact:

Marriage is work. Marriage is work. Marriage is work.

And you know what? I like chicken. You know what I get? A recipe book for chicken. I can have chicken every day and not have the same meal twice.

And if I get tired of chicken, I abstain chicken for a while. If you don’t eat for a while, you’ll be surprised how soon you start craving chicken. Any chicken. Just a sniff of chicken. Even a taste. Some chicken leftovers. Whatever.

Alright, this column made me hungry.

***
If you want to make sure that I see your comment or just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to do so on my message board. I apologize in advance for some of my regulars.