smelling salt

what a strange era we live in. fairly spectacular. the innominate vietnam vet who i sat next to on the plane ride home from georgia brought this to my attention. of the thousands of years that civilizations have risen and fallen... of the billions of people who have lived lives, thought thoughts, been irritated by their little sisters, stubbed their toes, sweated and pee'd and coughed up unidentifiable but gratifying chunks of phlegm, and suffered harrowing losses and pain, we are the ones who live in the twenty-first century in america. what are the odds? we are not one of the half-the-world's-population that makes less than two dollars a day. we don't worry about drought, or warring tribesmen, or whether or not we have contracted AIDS yet. we don't spend time being concerned that we cannot feed our children today. our houses do not have dirt floors. it's as though we have won the anthropologic lottery. correspondingly, we get perturbed when there are sticky spots on our kitchen floors. we frown at the water streaks on our dishwasher-washed glasses. we sigh with real disappointment when it's time to change the oil again in our cars. we make thousands of dollars every year, and just want a little bit more. are things as screwed up as i'm suggesting?

so a running start on our last few weeks: in abilene, we dropped in to old navy (that place that all of us gap-generation folks shop, hoping nobody sees the tag, hoping they all think instead that our clothes are from the gap... or maybe even banana republic). we found this bear outfit, and because we were too cheap to buy it for halloween (which i don't really get into anyway), we just put julia in it and snapped a photo. it was totally unforgettable. squeeziness and oozy goozy baby loving to the max.

so then we came home for four days, and thereafter left for atlanta, georgia, where i was attending some pediatrics lectures. we chose atlanta because it is so close to lance and ashleigh kelley, erin's brother and his wife. they are incredibly cool people, and totally dear to erin and me. lance is working on his PhD in clinical psychology at auburn university (which, if you're interested in academic prestige, is actually saying quite a lot), and ashleigh is a volleyball coach at the largest high school in alabama (and an elementary school p.e. teacher at the same time). the picture is of the two of them and julia. it was hard to leave their hospitality.





coming home, though, provided the much-anticipated encounter with the new hobbs baby, rebecca dianne. what a beautiful girl! what a biologic miracle. a gazillion dna purines and pyramidines, listed in perfect order, calling together amino acids to stick together in just the right combination billions and billions of times over to make protein after protein after protein. proteins forming tissues and tissues forming organs... and then, a heart that pumps! arteries directing red blood cells that carry oxygen to the web of neurons in the brain that in turn send impulses to the hands that grasp! eyes that have sight and a nose that actually smells! and the product is entirely composed of mark and jennifer hobbs. it blows my mind.


So wrapping up: Jesus was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only Begotten, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

cookie in hand

i got caught. exposed.

amy, maria... you are correct in that there was a brief cyber-reality to the phantom post. available thursday night from 8-ish postmeridian to friday 10-ish antemeridian, this post was just a few things about my day... but when i read it over, i thought, ugggh... it was clear i was trying to say something just to be interesting, just to get some anonymous reader's approval. so i deleted the post, for the sake of the integrity of the purpose of my blog in the first place. have i told you there is a real problem here?

i am so totally delighted that my friend kevin thompson has entered the blogesphere with me! i am putting a link to his blog under my "saints near and abroad" tab on the right. he's a brother in Jesus. and someone who shares my aforealludedto illness. reading his blog will help with vim and vigor, and may increase life expectancy and decrease infant mortality (although there have not been any good studies yet showing this).

okay, so i'll do my best not to add any more B.S. postings. no promises though -- i'm only on my second round of chemo -- but i will do my darndest. thanks for calling me out, sisters.

west texas evenings

i'm in abilene, texas, this weekend. home of (in the words of country music great gary p. nunn) the friendliest people and the prettiest women you ever seen. one of those women happens to be my wife erin. she and i are staying with her parents, nolan and sharon (see photo). sharon teaches public school and nolan is an accomplished sculptor. check out his website at http://www.nolankelley.com. by the way, there are no greater sunsets than those you'll find in abilene.

julia at 5 months

borrowing your accent

by the way, this is instead of therapy. the motivation behind the blogging is this: i've acquired a lot of friends by repulsive means. something about my personality causes me to cater behind an agreeable smile to folks all day long. if you're a friend of mine, at some point or another, i've played you. i'm watching your face... reading the lines beside your eyes and the fissures of your mouth... i recognize when your gaze dulls and when your attention shifts... and i play to the audience. i'm convinced i can earn friendship through compromise. blogging may be my honest attempt (i'm mustering honesty here), to take a small step toward coming clean. to posit what i believe, and to do so unapologetically. it comes with serious apprehension, and i hope to goodness that it will lead in a direction that's not entirely self-centered.

self-centeredness seems to be the density that draws me away from God, and no doubt the root of the "playing to the audience" bit. i like the way Jesus Christ says it: "i do not accept praise from men, but i know you. i know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. i have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. how can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?" (john five something). and as if that weren't convincing, "woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets" (luke six).

thank you, kevin.