Wednesday, October 12, 2011

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It's amazing what a difference a camera can make. Some years ago there was a very popular TV series that lasted for years and kept getting reincarnated, pioneered by a guy named Allen Funt. Now he was pretty well known in his time, and the reason he became well known was one thing. He became the creator of a program called Candid Camera. And he proved the principal over and over again, that the camera can make a big difference. See, he would prove that people do these dumb little things totally unaware that the nation was watching. If they knew that, they never would have done what Allen Funt tricked them into doing. Course, the results of clicking cameras aren't always amusing. Incriminating photos can bring down a presidential candidate or a Christian leader and they have. You can imagine the photographer's victims saying, "If I'd only known they were recording this." Well, why don't you assume they are?

Thursday, September 15, 2011

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Most of us urban or suburban type husbands don't go out with a bow and arrow to bring in our family's dinner. That was in the good old days where Dad went hunting for dinner. Instead, we go to a shop, or an office, or some such place and we get a paycheck. Then we turn it over to the grocery store.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

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Anytime I'm planning to be in New York City I make sure I have plenty of loose change with me. Yeah, I know I'll need it for tips; maybe for a parking lot attendant or cab driver, a waitress. In fact, tipping, well it's a way of life in America. Now, I looked up tipping in the dictionary and here's what a tip is: It is a small present of money given directly to someone for performing a service. Aw, that's nice isn't it? A tip, a small thank you. Nothing major; loose change stuff. And that's fine if it's in response to a small service, but what about if it's a response to a total sacrifice.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

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Now, there's one good way to recognize the places that folks think are important—the guards. Yeah. I mean, they obviously think the White House is important; there are guards all around it. The bank usually has a guard. There are some club communities that I've seen where you don't get to even go into the neighborhood until the guard says, "Yes, somebody left a name here at the booth. You can go in."

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

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I used to work with our high school football team quite a bit, and their practices were in full swing. And I was talking with one of the soon to be freshman football players, and he said, "Ron, it seems like just yesterday we were having our first practices back in the summer." And I talked to some seniors, and then they said, "Ron, weren't we just freshmen? How did we get here so fast?"

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

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Over the years in campus ministry, I always put on a special push to reach football players, because, you know, they're pretty strategic people on campus. And there was one event that football players always enjoyed. We called it "The Great Cheerleader Put-On." What we would do is we'd invite in four cheerleaders and then four football players to be their coaches. You say, "What? Coaches for what?" Well, we brought in most of the pieces of football gear: shoulder pads, knee pads, hip pads, helmet. And then we wanted to see which cheerleader could get fully dressed in a football uniform first.

Friday, July 29, 2011

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Teenage boys aren't known primarily for their neatness and organization, as you probably know. When my oldest son was that creature called "a teenage boy," he had one area that defied the messy stereotype. I said just one area, right? It was his baseball card collection.

Oh, everything else may have been in a state of total chaos, but oh not the baseball cards. They were neatly put away in plastic holders, filed in notebooks, categorized. Why? Well, as he said, "Dad, they're only valuable if they're in mint condition. I want to keep these cards in mint condition."

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

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This body that you and I move around in is pretty amazing. One of the amazing qualities it has might be called "compensation." In other words, when one part breaks down, it seems as if another part gets stronger in order to help make up the difference.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

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We couldn't figure it out. For some reason, the mice suddenly liked our house so much. All I know is after not having had that problem, we suddenly were invaded. Well, I planned very strategically to be gone, of course, when they invaded the house. In fact the reason we know that they were there is because my wife found, well let's just say some signs of them in the silverware drawer of all places.

Friday, July 8, 2011

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My daughter and I hugged a lot when she was little. And when she was a big college student, and even now that she has a family of her own, I'm happy to report we still have what we call "hug alerts." We have always had a demonstrative relationship; have with all the kids actually.