Memory and Song

Music, they say, sticks in memory exceptionally well. Especially when we associate it with a milestone or something especially positive or negative. Language and rhythm and melody and emotion? So many brain spaces to tie into.

Some songs, however cheesy, will always be dear to me. Lovefool by The Cardigans played twenty times the weekend I moved into this house. The Doors songs my spouse crooned to our children when they refused to sleep. 

And then there are the songs I would love to never hear again. The lousy songs that are musically miserable but still get stuck in my head. And then there's Extreme's More Than Words, used by a pushy teen boyfriend... well, I'm not going to list all the oof songs.

Movies and books and yes, songs, express a longing to hold on to certain memories or to be done with others forever. Alas, the actual wiring of our brains is complicated, and stimulus comes whether we want it or not.

The Most Calming Show Ever

My sons love to watch How It's Made. Each episode shows the steps (be they handwork or robotic assembly lines) to make three different products.

It's a fascinating show.

And it's also one of the most relaxing things on TV. Happy background music, the soothing voice of the narrator, and lots of swirling moving parts.

I'm more than happy to doze off while the guys watch an episode or four. Everybody wins.

Twenty Years, More or Less

A little over twenty years ago, I saw Pulp Fiction on a date. It was over the top, overly bloody, but a few lines became part of our common dialogue.

It's on now and I'm half-watching, half-listening as I do some late-night renovations on the house I bought with that date (now spouse), while he and our kids sleep.

I haven't seen it many times over the years, but we've got the album, so the soundtrack is familiar. Music to work to, with goofy dialogue amidst the ultraviolence.

Technical Difficulties

I had a picture post I wanted to make tonight, and I cannot get the pictures up here.

The gremlins are wicked and my problem-solving skills are limited right now.
Perhaps I should grab a little extra sleep to help with my deficit.

May the technology gods smile on you--today, tomorrow, and every day.

Problems We Didn't Know We Could Have

The other day my work email was being bounced by Earthlink and my service provider had to verify this that and the other thing. It was Greek to me and I was just glad when it was handled.

This week the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)'s new website launched. It's a bold new look and some functions changed. And as anyone who's ever moved can tell you, sometimes it takes a while to realize what you've misplaced and to get everything in the right place. 
404 Error
Style Sheet Not Found
Lots of terms few of us could have imagined twenty years ago.

The UUA's website team is hard at work fixing these slippery bits as quickly as they find them. In the meantime we're learning new ways to navigate to find what we need, or going without for a few days.

Not a Priority

Seen the Nationwide Insurance ad about "when you're not treated like a priority" or some such?

The "low priority" customers are portrayed by children.

I think I gasped out loud, amazed that they were so very blunt. 

As a parent and an educator, I've spent the majority of my adult life working with children. And yes, in US culture, children are often seen as a low priority. They're short, can't vote, and don't have their own credit cards.

Thank goodness they're loud and adorable, or they might be overlooked entirely.

Getting Past A Name

I'm binge-watching "Selfie" right now. I hadn't watched it because oy, who wants to watch a show about selfies?

It turns out, it's a really cute show, AND it has John Cho. I love this guy!

Thank goodness for friends who paid attention to something I so easily overlooked.

(You know...like 'Unitarian Universalist'...)

The Calm That Is "How It's Made"

Most of their lives, my sons have been big fans of "How It's Made" .This Canadian show takes just a few minutes to show us the steps involved in producing some item, from a Faberge-type egg to a shop vac. 

The boys loved learning things and seeing all the tools and assembly lines and robots in action.

Why am I such a fan? Well, have you ever been too tired to read, but not able to sleep yet?

"How It's Made" is perfect for that. The relaxing-yet-groovy soundtrack, the calm voice of the narrator, and the clear steps of a process--it's sort of like a golf nap, but with a sense of completion.

Just because you can...doesn't mean you should.

Oh, Blacklist.
Having an episode THIS WEEK about a plague spreading globally? This might be exciting television, but it is not responsible in the current climate of fear and panic.

Ugh.

And of course, they can kill thousands of faceless people, and then find some simple way to stop the flow and everything is miraculously fixed.

Writers can fix anything, can't they?

Glitches, Grace, and a Generosity of Spirit

May  5, 1819

William Ellery Channing gave the revolutionary sermon Unitarian Christianity.
Due to his soft voice and the poor acoustics of the church, only the first three rows of folks could actually hear the sermon.

October 5 (and 6), 2014

The Church of the Larger Fellowship switches to their new online worship platform with Adobe Connect. It did not go smoothly. Some elements froze entirely, or went in fits and starts.

And yet, people stuck with it, and it truly felt like community.

Some elements I witnessed (watching quite passively as a congregant) that made it work:

*Clear reporting ahead of time—

•   Why we’re switching to a new format
•  What platforms were supported by Adobe, and what you might need to do ahead of time
•  Recognizing that there might be glitches, and that leadership was committed to working with the vendor to fix things over the coming weeks.
•  Asking membership to please share their experience of what did and did not work. Amazingly, those emails were to be sent to the senior minister, Meg Riley.

*Leaders logged in early and were available for level one tech support.

*Collaborative spirit— Soon enough congregants were joining in with their suggestions and what worked for them

*Personal responsibility and flexibility- some congregants, when one device/browser wasn’t working for them, made the effort to try another way, rather than shaking their heads and leaving

*Reminders that all the video segments would be on YouTube as well, so anything missed was not gone forever! (As I write this, I see links going up on Facebook, directing us to the segments that were hardest to hear/see.)

*And through all the chaos, the message was vitally important and people’s pastoral needs were still being met.

Kudos to the folks at Church of the Larger Fellowship. I look forward to what is to come!

Earworms

Earlier in the week I used a nonsense word, forgetting that it is featured in an earworm sort of song. My sister cursed me for that, as she then had the song going in her head for much of the next day.

Oops. Does the unintentional nature of the earworming work as a defense? Perhaps in the sentencing stage?

Today I have a song stuck in my head.
More precisely, I have about a twelve-second loop of it stuck in my head.

Thus far, it has not worked its way into the piece I'm writing.
But as I preach tomorrow morning, well, we're just going to have to hope that it doesn't come bursting out.

Stepping Back, Looking Hard, and Letting Go

Before I write even the first sentence--NO, this is not a personal post. I'm not quitting, nor am I looking to gut any projects. Just another way to look at systems.

HUGE news from the gaming industry today.  Blizzard Entertainment announced that they've abandoned the Titan game they've had in development for seven years.

Yes, I'm talking about a game.  AND it's something to take seriously. This company created World of Warcraft, an online gaming experience that folks spend hours on every day.

And this company and this project involves lots of people's jobs. For some of them, years and years of their careers. Poof.

Why did this happen? Because after a time of discernment, they realized that they couldn't find the fun.

Senior vice president of story and franchise development* Chris Metzen is quoted as saying "The discipline of knowing when to quit is important. We were losing perspective and getting lost in the weeds a little. We had to allow ourselves to take that step back and reassess why the hell we were doing that thing in the first place."

When, in our lives and our organizations, do we take that step back? And how do we come to the decision to set things aside?

How are things different when we let fun be part of the criteria?


*Yes, I totally want to be a Senior VP of Story Development when I grow up.

Best Stuff On Earth?

Snapple claims that it's "Made from the best stuff on Earth"

For the teas, that's filtered water, sugar (@35-46 grams), citric acid, tea, and natural flavors. The juice drinks are water, sugar, juice, and assorted other flavors and colors.

From an addictive standpoint, sugar is some of the best stuff on Earth. So I guess there's a certain truth in the advertising.

The Chair, Night One

The Chair is a new cable show (Starz) in which two directors are given the opportunity to make a film, starting with the same script and location and production company.

First episode observations in no particular order:

*Being a director does not mean that you know how to frame yourself in a webcam/video camera. Holy nauseating camera work.

*If you're supposed to direct, you might not have all the time for every single detail. Like, you know, endlessly rewriting the provided script.

*Think carefully on whether or not you really need to star in the first full-length movie you direct.

*Superbad was SEVEN YEARS ago. You might not be as cutting edge as you think you are.

*Pittsburgh has snow in the winter. Like forty inches a year. Plan for it.

*Sticky notes are relentlessly useful.

Not Too Shameful Confession

I admit it--I am a sucker for a good commercial. Usually something funny, though I also cry at that darned coffee commercial when Peter! comes home in the early morning...

I'm supposed to be above these things, perhaps, and to see them as unwelcome messages brainwashing me into crass consumerism. Quite often I don't know what the commercial is for. That's some darned subliminal brainwashing

And not especially effective-- I rarely buy the products I see advertised. Or maybe it's just that I'm a homebody with a short memory--I don't want to get up off the couch, and then I don't remember the products the next day?

Mmmmm, french fries...

Dental Plan! Dental Plan! (Lisa Needs Braces!) Dental Plan!*

FXX, a network many of us did not know we had on our cable package, is playing every Simpsons episode over a twelve day period. 

It will likely be the default programming on my TV for the rest of the month.

In the early days, I watched The Simpsons every Sunday night. Through the magic of syndication, I've seen some episodes twenty times or more. 

Many a Simpsons quote has crept into our common vocabulary--which is your favorite?


*Season 4, Episode 17, "Last Exit to Springfield"

Can You Isolate A Truth?

A recent article in Christian Century talks about Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder and his history of sexual misconduct.

Do Yoder’s violations of his own theological claims undermine the content of his theology? Do his sins disqualify him from the major role he has played in modern Christian thought? We certainly understand the seriousness of these questions. It is undoubtedly difficult to know how to receive gifts from sinful people. 

The article goes on at some length, bringing up a double-edged sword--did his abusive behavior exist within Yoder's theology or somehow isolated from it? 

In my day-to-day work, I rarely reference Yoder's work, but I often find myself putting together curricula and their resources.  

One suggests excerpts from a Woody Allen movie. Given the variety of allegations against the writer/director, do I include his insights into family dynamics? Quite honestly, the range of possibilities and ethics and whatnot gives me a headache AND makes me nauseous. And in a week of a thousand decisions, I put a big green question mark in that margin, vowing to come back to it before February.

Beauty and Horror

I spent the morning out on a boat, ostensibly fishing, though nothing was biting.

It was quite lovely.

On the way home I made the mistake of checking the headlines.

The airplane crash in Ukraine--this story just got more and more tragic and troubling as the day went on. So many people, no survivors. A missile? The first pictures of the wreckage. The uptick in the passenger count--babies in laps.

More news from Gaza, of Israeli forces moving in, and calling up more troops.

Ooof. I will admit that I needed to curl up in a ball for a while.

And yet the beauty of the morning still happened. And we still live in a world rich with possibilities for good and for love.

Now for all of us to uncover the possibilities and work toward them.