Grateful Tuesdays # 16

Dear God,

Thank you for the love you showed me a few Sundays ago through my friends. I have no doubt that it was your love that was shown. That's the first time in a long time. Thank you.

Thank you for David, that he got it. It's all about seeing you for who you really are.

Thank you for my shoes; thank you for my friends around me. Thank you for my family.

==

Thank you. Thank you for you and for the filming friday. Thank you for how much fun it was in the end. Thank you for this beautiful weather. Thank you for the friends you’ve put in my life and for how they affect me, for how you use them to lift me up, God.

Thank you for all of the people at camp. Thank you for Spork and how geeky he is and what a good friend he’s been to my brother.

Thank you for Stephanie and how she was willing to help us out today and how she helped lighten the mood a lot and keep me from going crazy.

Thank you for inventing the idea of being creative; thank you that it’s something we can all do. Thank for letting me make movies.

==

There’s quite a gap between what we could do and what we end up doing, isn’t there? God, I know I didn’t live up to my potential today, and that’s very frustrating to me. I’m glad that you are still willing to love me anyway, even though I’m functioning far below what I could.

What’s the secret? How do live how I want to?

I’m afraid. I’m afraid of a life-style of under productivity. No, wait... that’s not the right word. I’m afraid of living less than... perfect? Is that all? I know I’m not ever going to be perfect; I just would like to feel that I come close more often than not.

But maybe then I would forget you? I think I tend to forget you anyway, unless things get really bad.

I’m sorry. That’s not the way it should be. I’m remembering you now, and I’m seeing that I need you. I need you to be drawing me away from the things that distract from the life you have for me. That life is so much better than any I could dream up for myself or am inclined to live.

Thank you that I can always come back to you, that you have no three strike rule — I would have used those up a long time ago!

Thank you that Jeremy puts up with me. I know sometimes I’m frustrating to work with. I know I don’t always practice what I preach.

I’d love to have a deeper conversation with you than this, God. I’m just going through motions right now, but I know I need to. I know that these first sputtering starts are the beginning of a life-style of thanksgiving.

Help me to live that life God: Keep my eyes open to see reality and my thoughts pointed towards you.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen

Hooray for Daniel Amos!

Hooray for fan music videos! Hooray for YouTube! Hooray for rocket packs! Hooray for old sci-fi movies! Hooray for the eighties! (Oh, and hooray for FilmChat, where I found the link!)

Installment Twenty Eight...

"This truth is to the convinced Christian a source of deep comfort in sorrow and of steadfast assurance in all the varied experiences of his life. To him "the practice of the presence of God" consist not of projecting an imaginary object from within his own mind and then seeking to realize its presence; it is rather to recognize the real presence of the One whom all sound theology declares to be already there, an objective entity, existing apart from any apprehension of Him on the part of His creatures. The resultant experience is not visionary but real."

-A. W. Tozer The Knowledge of the Holy

I am excited that...

... I am done with my final paper for my writing class.

... Eucharisto has new music up on his snazzy new website!

... that I got to draw today for a really, really long time.

Thank you, God! May you open our eyes to see all that you give us.

This day in history...

Cyrano de Bergerac was born. And Midsummer and Why watched the movie Cyrano de Bergerac last night. Weird.

Also: Davy Crockett died this day in history. That's kind of sad.

Awwh, so did Louisa May Alcott. This day just keeps getting sadder and sadder.

On the bright side, the great comedian, Lou Costello was born today and so was Will Eisner — whoever he is. His name makes me think of Walt Disney for some reason, but I didn't find any connection between the two in his Wikipedia entry except that his signiture looks like Disney's.

Today I also found out that "longitudinal" is a word while I was doing research on a paper that I'm not doing right now.

Mozart's wife died today too.

Ooh! Rob Reiner was born today too! Can anyone tell me who he is? (I almost put "Can any of you meatheads tell me who he is?", but I didn't think you'd get it, and I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

Humh.

Ratatouille is being made by Brad Bird (who directed The Incredibles and The Iron Giant). Well jiminy, I didn't know that. I have much higher hopes for the film now — though a movie about rats in France does seem to be quite a departure from his other works.

Speaking of Pixar related stuff, does anyone know how long it's been since a Pixar movie was passed over in the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars (as it was this year)? I think a that hasn't happened to a Pixar film since Shrek 2 beat out Monster's Inc. (the year the award was created). Does anyone have any theories as to where Cars went wrong? Or maybe it really deserved the Oscar? I didn't see Happy Feet, so I can't really say.

I personally think that Cars misstepped in that it was passably the first Pixar film to have a protagonist that, for the most part, failed to be more interesting that the character's around him. This is one reason I am so enthusiastic about The Incredibles; Bob Parr is a character rich with complexity and depth; I identify very much with his struggles and desires. The same depth can be found in Finding Nemo's Marlin — that he is not completely outshined Ellen DeGeneres' Dory is a tribute the story-telling powers of Andrew Stanton and his crew. That film could very easily ended up as an excuse to display DeGeneres' talent (i.e. what happened with Robbin Williams and Aladdin). This also keeps threatening to happen with the Pirate's of the Caribbean franchise, but they've (narrowly) avoided that so far, so I continue to be hopeful as they continue on to the final installment.

Incidentally, after Brad Bird's film, Nemo's Stanton is next in line to take to the director's chair. Exciting!

Post Script: Just so you know, the title of this post represents an attempt on my part to translate into letters a sound I often make to denote a kind mix of surprise and interest, sometimes with a little bit of "Well, why didn't I know that five weeks ago?" attitude thrown in. I'm still unsatisfied with the variations I've tried, but I'll keep looking. Just thought you should know.