Church

Saw this on the job section of Craigslist. No commentary needed -- it speaks for itself.*****2 Male Models needed for daughters birthdayReply to:Date: 2007-04-25, 12:43AM PDTI am looking for 2 gorgeous guys to carry my daughter on a chair as an entrance to her 13th birthday toga party. You will need to dress in Toga attire, be in great shape (a six pack is required) not be over 21. Once she has made her grand entrance you will fan her with a huge fan and feed her grapes. You will only need to be present for apx 30 mins max! You will be paid $75 for 30 mins. The event will be held on May 12th at 7pm-7:30----this will be a kids event. I just want to totally shock my daughter and give her the time of her life. Please send me 2 RECENT photos and why you would like…

I was trapped. Even as I tried to work and do something productive, I found my attention being drawn back to the television. On Tuesday, I found myself inside the local automotive shop while I waited on them to finish several repairs. Unfortunately for me, the television was tuned in to what must have been the all Judges channel. Judge Alex Ferrer followed by Judge Judy. I’m sure I’ve probably forgotten one or two of the others. But you have to understand that after several hours, my mind was jumbled and I began rooting out loud for different plaintiffs or defendants.I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed that the judge from the Anna Nicole Smith trial didn’t have his own show yet.The whole experience lead me to one conclusion: we are a strange bunch of people. Unfortunately, we beam the best and worst of our television programming to…

For the second day in a row, I'm at Firestone Tires on Lake Murray Boulevard having work done on a car. In this case, it's routine work on Tonya's van before her parents arrive. As I'm waiting, the two front desk workers get in a verbal shouting match about how to schedule appointments. One of them is the manager and she is giving as good as she is receiving. The ironic thing is that myself and another customer are less than ten feet away. The lady next to me can hear them over the music playing on her iPod.The best part is when the phone rings and the employee picks it up and answers in a sweet voice. Then goes back to shouting.

This morning a commercial for Kaiser caught me eye. The tag line was "be your own cause" and was designed to encourage people to take responsibility for their health and wellbeing. But the phrase made me think of how often our culture encourages us to be our own cause ... look out for yourself ... do what makes you happy ... it's all about you.Yet it's not that bad of a tag line. There are times when we do need to see our lives as part of something significant -- a cause that extends us beyond ourself. The trouble comes when all of our causes extend no further than the shadow we cast.

By now, you’ve surely seen some of the coverage about the shootings at Virginia Tech. I was stunned as the news went from one shooting to a mass murder. My heart still aches when I think about the deep trauma suffered by those who lost a loved one and those whose lives were spared.Dramatic stories are beginning to come out about what happened. Liviu Librescu was an aeronautics engineer and teacher at VTU. The 76-year-old gentleman was also a survivor of the Holocaust. The professor blocked the door with his body while telling his students to jump out the window. He was eventually shot and killed.There are already critics and finger-pointers looking to place blame. There will certainly be a time to reflect and inspect – but hopefully we will move beyond the immediate cast of characters and look at the deeper issues.Issues like why we live in a culture…