How the world became a better place on US Highway 19.

Not 30 minutes after I wrote my last post, I sat in my car in the far-right turn lane of a set of three turn lanes, each lined with cars waiting for green arrows so we could make lefts into each of the three southbound lanes of US Highway 19.

Any set of left-turn lanes makes me anxious. This is because in any set of left-turn lanes, there is at least one self absorbed driver who — bereft of awareness of anything that isn’t inside his or her vehicle — does not know his or her turn lane is part of a set. So if this person is, say, a guy in a green Mustang in the middle turn lane of three, he may, for instance, turn from the middle turn lane into the highway’s right lane. If there are no cars in the far-right turn lane of the three, his lack of awareness is both no biggie and reinforced: he’ll have done something he shouldn’t have, and without consequence.

But what happens when he turns into the right lane from a middle turn lane when there are cars in the far-right turn lane whose drivers are turning into that lane, too?

Sometimes, a crash. Other times, like today, the world becomes a better place.

The red arrows turned green and all three lanes turned left. The guy in the green Mustang, bereft of awareness of my car next to his, turned from the middle turn lane into the right southbound lane — my lane. The young woman in his passenger’s seat, whose window was down, saw my car. While he ran me off the road, she screamed. He swerved back into the middle, quickly enough that I could merge back into traffic.

And as I did, the young woman and I made eye contact.

Which is when, with such clear compassion, she apologized.

Twice now in two days, I’ve encountered people who’ve behaved in ways that so exceed my generally extremely low expectations of the general public. My blood pressure and I have needed this.

How the world became a better place in the frozen foods section.

Pushing a cart and dodging other shoppers, I swiveled into the turn onto the ice cream aisle.

“Popsicles,” I said. “Popsicles, Popsicles, Popsicles.”

Found them. And simultaneously as I found them, so did a girl who I’d guess is 18 years my junior. This is how the world became a better place in the frozen foods section.

We reached for the freezer door together, and she held it open while I grabbed a box of Popsicles. She reached in and grabbed her own after that. I tossed my box into my cart, which is when I realized.

“Sugar free?” I said. “I don’t want sugar free.”

So — while the girl continued to hold the door open for me — I put that box back and reached for another.

“Also sugar free! Are they all sugar free?”

“Nope!” the girl said, which is when she all but climbed into the freezer to retrieve an out of sight box of Popsicles sweetened with real sugar. She handed it to me.

“Thank you so much!” I said.

“You’re welcome.”

She smiled.

Who knew shopping for a box of Popsicles would result in the restoration of some of my hope for and/or faith in humanity?

My secret affinity.

Is it as funny to other people as it is to me that I easily wasted at least forty minutes of my day dancing to this song?

Seriously. I have a secret affinity for gospel music. It’d been dormant for awhile, but Whitney Houston’s funeral woke it up.

Books in 2012: How Do You Kill 11 Million People?

Several months ago, Michael Hyatt — a blogger of whom I’m a big fan — wrote a post about a book called How Do You Kill 11 Million People?: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think by a guy named Andy Andrews. Based solely on what Hyatt wrote, I bought a copy of the book. I read it — my sixth book in 2012 — last night.

My reading it in one sitting, however, is no miracle. Around 80 pages with an average of, like, 14 words per page, anybody who can read can read it in an hour. The book is far more political in nature than I expected, but it’s timely, considering our country’s impending presidential election. Basically, Andrews uses the number of people killed by Nazis between the 1930s and 1940s to illustrate the power that can be attained and abused by people who are liars. He doesn’t take a political side, but points out that “we the people” have another kind of power — the kind enacted when we use what we learn about the past to prevent a repetition of history.

I think he makes a great point with it, but I think what he wrote requires some clarifying. It easily can be inferred that he’s ultimately blaming the fate of people who are deceived on the people themselves, when I think in reality, the entire process of being deceived is far more complex than that. I won’t put words in his mouth, but based on what he wrote, a person can infer that he’s calling anyone a fool who is deceived. But who’s the fool, really? Is it the person, or the people who raised him or her without modeling common sense or critical thought? And are those people the fools, or are the fools the people who raised them without modeling common sense or critical thought? And even then, are they fools, or are they products of another complex system composed of cultural and familial values and beliefs and habits that don’t happen to include all that much common sense and critical thought? It’s just not simple.

This, of course, is not to say I didn’t get anything out of the book. I did. Its point is applicable, really, to multiple parts of life (like mass media, mental health, relationships). A few of the excerpts I underlined are below:

“But in terms of why we do what we do, how we govern each other, what our society allows and why—very few of us intentionally connect the truth of the past with the realities of where we have ended up today.” -page 11

“You see, the danger to America is not a single politician with ill intent. Or even a group of them. The most dangerous thing any nation faces is a citizenry capable of trusting a liar to lead them. In the long run, it is much easier to undo the policies of crooked leadership than to restore common sense and wisdom to a deceived population willing to elect such a leader in the first place. Any country can survive having chosen a fool as their leader. But history has shown time and again that a nation of fools is surely doomed.” -page 42

“Why do the ages of our world’s greatest civilizations average around 200 years? Why do these civilizations all seem to follow the same identifiable sequence—from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, and finally from dependence back into bondage?” -page 46

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To read Michael Hyatt’s post about the book, click here.

To learn more about the book, click here.

To read about all the books I read in 2012, click here.

 

Books in 2012: Practicing the Way of Jesus

It’s fitting that I finished reading Practicing the Way of Jesus: Life Together in the Kingdom of Love a couple days into Lent. Practicing the Way of Jesus — the fifth book I’ve read in full this year — is written by Mark Scandrette, co-founder of RE-IMAGINE and the Jesus Dojo.

The book outlines “experiments” in which Scandrette has participated: short and long term projects, some conducted privately, others in groups, others publicly in his community. A lot of what resonated most with me from the book was focused on the importance and purposes of self discipline and self denial, both of which are big parts of Lent for me. See below for some of my favorite excerpts:


“And yet, a tremendous gap exists in our society between the way of radical love embodied and taught by Jesus and the reputation and experience of the average Christian. … We can be frustrated by this gap and become critics, or be inspired by a larger vision of the kingdom and get creative.” -pages 21-22

“If the invitation from Jesus to practice the Way sounds like a burden or obligation, then we aren’t hearing him correctly. The offer of the Rabbi promises the freedom we long for: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light’ (Matthew 11:28-30). … The invitation to follow the way of Jesus doesn’t help us cope with the busy lives we have or support our quest for the American dream. It does offer us a radical alternative to the ways of this world that are making us hurried, weary and tired. We are being invited to discover a way of life, in surrender to the Master, that is more fulfilling and free than any way that we could imagine or make for ourselves.” -pages 35-36

“The crisis of evangelism in the Western world is not a lack of information about the gospel, but a scarcity of examples of transformed people who would provoke others to ask, ‘How did you discover this remarkable new way of life?'” -page 90

“Think back to the account of Adam and Eve in the garden after they had eaten fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was the cool of the day and the Creator was calling out, ‘Adam, where are you?’ They were hiding in the bushes, covering themselves with leaves. Who had withdrawn? Was it God? No, Adam and Eve were the ones who pulled away. Nothing, including their disobedience or shame, could keep the Creator from continuing to pursue relationship. Even now we are being invited to step out of the shadows and into the light of God’s loving presence. For many generations we have been on the run from God, both in our minds and in our bodies. This posture of hiding is what keeps us from being more aware of God’s care and presence. … We do many things with our minds and bodies to distract ourselves from God’s presence. The pace of life in our society and the pervasiveness of media and technology make it challenging to find space to hear God’s voice. It is countercultural and it takes immense courage to be quiet in body and mind.” -pages 115-116

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For more information about the book, click here.

For more information about RE-IMAGINE, click here. And for the Jesus Dojo, click here.