"with daddy . . ."

Julie is at our church's women's retreat this weekend (see send off picture below). In addition to making sure E and C survive the weekend (they are peacefully napping right now), I wanted to post my first entry on our family blog. Occasionally, I provide Julie with "creative inspiration" but generally the blog is all Julie -- which is why it is so witty yet completely real (just like Julie, the most exceptional yet understated person in my world, I am gratefully hers).

Anyway, Eden just finished telling our neighbors at the "part mint" (a.k.a. apartment) that this weekend she was "eating with daddy, going running with daddy, going to the park with daddy, taking care of Carter with daddy, EVERYTHING with daddy!!" Made me feel very important because we do most of these things normally but Eden said, with a big smile, that this was a "special" weekend. I agree.

Hot Mamas! -- J and her friends leaving. All these ladies are great moms and their kids are with their equally great dads this weekend.

So, I don't blog, tweet, facebook, myspace, linked in (have account but rarely look at it). I don't even like email or voicemail. My secretary or paralegal take care of my email most of the time. A voicemail message always disappoints me ("really? he left a message for me to call him . . . now I spent the time checking the message and still have to call him? I'll wait until he leaves at least three more and then his efforts and my wasted time checking his efforts will justify a return call" -- I am looking forward to fewer and more meaningful voicemails from readers of this blog). I usually don't watch TV news and rarely listen to the radio. I am not anti-technology, I am just weary of all the noise, the false intensity or simply the false statements made without intensity. I don't find any of it very connecting or community forming. For example, after an entire summer of healthcare debate "shouting" and NPR's "wall-to-wall coverage," I still have no idea if the insurance plan I currently have will or will not be affected. All I know now is what I knew a year ago -- there is a healthcare "crisis" in America. I am not stupid, I have tried to understand, to engage. The "noise" is making all of us horrible listeners and that is probably why people like Glenn Beck and Kanye West get so much of our airtime. And lastly, who thinks they are so important they need to write about themselves or offer their opinions, or tweet, update their status, tag, link, or friend you in the "virtual" world? I am fighting all my self-deprecating Calvinistic upbringing to avoid erasing this entire entry and simply saying "better left unsaid" and go back to the "real"world of college football Saturday. (I have never regreted anything I did not say).


But then there are blogs like this one and the ones of our friends and family. And I can see, read, enjoy and feel the connection they provide, the small moments that are shared, and the story that progresses. I love the peephole picture from our backyard fence at the top of this blog because that is what this is (again, all the credit goes to Julie and it took me over a year to recognize it and when I, like a 49er striking gold, told Julie my "ah ha moment" she said very generously "that was the point of taking the picture")

Okay, I have only one thing left to say and I may never blog again (or at least not until next year's women's retreat weekend). I am struggling through an important but sporadic book by Donald Miller entitled A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I would say it is very good but that would not do it justice, so I say it is important. Its sporadic nature is fine with me -- feels like life feels (if you like that type of book also read Neverland by O'Neill, more depressing but feels like life feels and articulates well). I don't want to tell you what Miller writes or does not write because you should read it for yourself. But I will say it is about life as a story, The Story, i.e., Christ and whether Miller's story or my story or your story is worth listening to or watching and how we can "edit" our story to make it a great story and part of the greatest Story. I have some editing to do but thankfully some good raw footage to work with and lots of opportunity ahead . . .