Yesterday it snowed, as well as today, but this story takes place yesterday. I awoke to find a blank of white fluffy goodness covering the ground. Oh Boy Oh Boy. The ground is covered with snow and both my wife and I have the day off. So we made a snow man. I like doing things that make me feel like a kid again. See picture above.

When we got home last night from the Rec Center we found our snowman friend headless! How could this be we had so lovingly given him a face and brought him to life and some stupid kid in our neighborhood decided that our snowman needed to die. What is this world coming to when a snowman can’t even live for 1 full day?

Where does someone get the idea that they can just walk up to the front of my house and decapitate my friends? I won’t stand for it. I must put a stop to this kind of behavior but how? If I was wealthy I would invest in a surveillance system, or a guard dog. But for now I am going to keep an ever watchful eye on my front yard and my air soft pistol ready. Beware stupid destructive kids, if you enter my yard you will leave with a body covered in welts.

A couple weeks ago my wife and I decided to go see the new political/war drama “Lions for Lambs”. I was a little leery at first because of how most movies seem to have an agenda. I thought that this movie would be all about how bad the war is and how we should be getting our troops out. Most of these ideas came from the fact that the movie stars both Tom Cruise and Robert Redford.

I don’t have a problem with people expressing their opinions but right now we don’t have a shortage of hollywood types sharing their so called expert opinions. To my surprise this movie was very unbiassed. Most if not all the sides of the issue are represented and are given the same weight in the story. No one opinion seems to be overtly pushy.

I think all adults should see this movie, it is very helpful in seeing other points of view on this issue. In the United States we are not very good listeners. People seem to have their opinions and don’t care about how anyone else see’s the world. That behavior hurts us internally as a country and on the world stage. Other country’s see us as a snotty teen ager that thinks they know all there is to know.

Learn to listen to each other. Learn to respect each other. You don’t know everything and you never will. If nothing else sit in a theatre and watch this movie and have them show you all the differing points of view. Having an open mind isn’t going to hurt you.

Why can’t life be more like Paris traffic? When we arrived here I was scared to death to even think about driving here. Luckily we didn’t have to. In the city of paris there are very few driving lanes and it seems to be every car, truck, motorcycle, scooter, bike and person for themselves. This is very scary from the point of view of an american driver that has been taught to drive defensively.
After a couple days here I’ve noticed something interesting. The drivers here have an understanding. They realize they are all in this thing together. They give and take space and share the road because they all have places to go. No one is more important than the others.
There are about 11 million people in paris yet I have seen any road rage, obscene gestures and amazingly not a single fender bender. I’m sure there are but I haven’t seen any. Compared to 1 week in the small town of nampa where I see 1 of each of these things daily it seems. Traffic is part of life the people of Paris. These drivers have accepted traffic/life as is it comes and they respect the other drivers just because they are on the road/journey with them.
It this not a beautiful image of how life should be? We are all in this thing together, why not work together and help each other out. We can live a better life letting others in and slowing down for those around us than we ever could if we all go as fast as we want in any direction without concern for the person on our right and left. You may get some scratches along the way and sometimes a big truck will double park in front of you but be patient someone will slow up and let you get around.

That’s what I think anyway.

I’m currently reading a book entitled “The Deity Formerly Known as God” by Jarrett Stevens. So far it is an good book not great but good. He is discussing the many flawed and different ideas of God or ways people view God. On one of which is the idea that God is a “Cop around the corner”. People view God as someone waiting to catch us doing something wrong. This is not what God is about. But I can see where people get this idea. You always seem to hear a list of do’s and don’ts when refering to what the Church holds as important. Stevens lists his Ten Commandments as the rules that were emphasised to him as he was groing up. Here are my personal Ten Commandments.

1. Don’t Cuss/Swear
2. Don’t Drink
3. Don’t Smoke
4. Don’t go with the guys/girls that do 1-3.
5. Be Nice to the Ladies
6. Don’t Have Sex.
7. Don’t throw Rocks.
8. Don’t Think About Sex.
9. Don’t question Authority.
10. Don’t Have Sex.

What were the most important rules emphasised to you as a youngster? Put them in the comments.

Here in Nampa (and surrounding cities) we have these “10 Commandments” signs. I believe they began showing up a couple years ago when a local city park placard was being removed because it contained the 10 Commandments.

I have issue with these signs on several levels. First of which is poor design, but that is just obvious. I will start with how tacky they make our streets look. Nampa has it’s classy areas and it’s not so classy areas just like every other town, but it is by no stretch of the imagination in danger of being a classy place to live. Overall I would say Nampa needs a little sprucing up (new sidewalks, some fresh paint, weeds pulled etc.)

I was walking down a street the other day that needs some sprucing up and came across one of these signs. It sticks out like a sore thumb and doesn’t add to the aesthetic beauty of their front yard. I mean really! Great you care about a local issue and you want to show your concern but perhaps post a persuasive article in the local paper or something that would be more effective and not such an assault on everyones optical nerves.

That being said it is not the worst part about these signs. Most of the people who are up in arms on this issue are religious, I would assume Christians. Why are these local Christians so obsessed with this 10 commandments statue. It seems to me to be a very telling commentary on Christians as a group. Christ has called us to a life so much greater than following a list of rules. He has called us to love unconditionally! Now that is worth getting excited about. It seems that a majority of Christians in this country are not concerned with this glorious, and exciting unconditional love and more concerned on what you should and should not do. When I see these signs around town I am saddened by what I perceive is some of the underlying reasons that people love Christ but don’t really care for Christians.