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Some people have a bookie or a dealer for their habits; I have Mikey to supply me with books to read over Christmas break. That doesn’t sound as exciting, but books are arguably more dangerous.
I finished When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris yesterday. A few of my old Arkansas friends who, contrary to our upbringing have learned to appreciate essays written by gay atheists, spoke highly of Sedaris. And they were right once again.
Most of the essays are about ten pages long (just my size) and have nothing to do with being engulfed in flames. The showpiece of the book, however, is an eighty-page essay about Sedaris quitting smoking in Tokyo. Really funny stuff. Plus, it made me think about my dad.
I guess my dad smoked unfiltered Camels for about sixty years…well, he did quit for a little while a few years before he died. He never made family announcements, so I’m not sure how I knew he had quit (my guess is that my mom whispered it to me on the side, but maybe it was just so obvious that even I noticed it). I do remember he had been really, really sick – so sick that he couldn’t smoke, so when he recovered he decided to just run with it. It wasn’t long, however, until he was sneaking around to steal a smoke. Kind of funny now to picture a seventy-year old man sneaking a cigarette like he was a kid again.
Eventually I guess he decided to admit he didn’t have the willpower at the time, or more likely, that he was an old man and this was ridiculous: if he wanted to smoke, why should any of us care?
I didn’t care, though I always HATED the smell. Just hated it. I’m sure this confirms my prudishness, but I never even tried one. Prudish or not, I know it confirms my independent streak. I never did consider nausea a necessary rite of passage in spite of the popular perception.
But I simply cannot bring myself to dislike smokers. After all, smokers remind me of my dad.
The anti-smoking phenomenon has been pretty crazy. I doubt if smoking will ever disappear, but it is surely a different world than when I was a kid.
As Sedaris put it, “It seems crazy to cut smoking mothers out of textbooks, but within a few years they won’t be allowed in movies either. A woman can throw her newborn child from the roof of a high-rise building. She can then retrieve the body and stomp on it while shooting into the windows of a day care center, but to celebrate these murders by lighting a cigarette is to send a harmful message. There are, after all, young people watching, and we wouldn’t want them to get the wrong idea.”
I have no point, so if you’re looking for one I’m sorry to disappoint. I just enjoyed Sedaris and am feeling somewhat thankful for his making me think about my dad again.
Look what I found on campus yesterday: BASEBALL!!!
When you have green grass, blue skies, bright sunshine, and seventy degrees, why not? Who cares if it’s late December?
I’ll tell you, I’m ready for baseball. Both my college and professional football teams sucked this year. Outside of an SEC interest in the BCS Championship next week, I’m ready for football season to go away and baseball season to crank up. My new college team (Pepperdine) will get started first, and my professional team (the Cardinals) won’t be far behind.
Yesterday, I scoured our lonely campus for photo op’s, and I was pretty proud of the baseball pic above. It’s hard to capture such a breathtaking sight. I was also proud of this one at the entrance to campus…
And I loved the way the colors played out in this pic from the Drescher campus looking out across the rest of Pepperdine.
I’m not even close to a musical expert, but I can answer the question of who is my all-time favorite musician: John Fogerty. So getting his new CD, “Revival,” for Christmas was really nice. And although I love every song on it, the sentiments expressed in the first track, “Don’t You Wish It Was True?”, makes it my favorite so far.
Reminds me of the Isaiah passages about “beating swords into plowshares” and “the wolf lying down with the lamb.” Some would say it’s just goofy wishful thinking. I think it’s a world worth working toward.
Here’s the video of the song.
Went to Malibu’s Point Dume yesterday afternoon intending to get a picture of the sunset on the Pacific Ocean. Mission accomplished there.
But I got there early and discovered the trail that led down to the rocky beach below. There, I lucked upon a picture of a helicopter passing over a couple of kayakers while the surf arrived near my vantage point.
Yet more fun came when I noticed a California sea lion playing in the water. I chased her around for awhile, and though I never got a great picture, this one will have to suffice (for now).
But most fun of all, just when I had about given up, I heard something on the rocks behind me. I climbed up to take a picture of the pelican I saw there and was surprised to see several sea lions lazily sunning on the rocks, too! At one point they roused enough to honk or whatever it is they do in my direction, and I let them get on with their naps. And though the lighting in this pic desperately needs the work of a photoshop artist like my friend, Big Dave, it captures the essence of the nearness of the access I was granted yesterday.
I think I discovered a new place to hangout on these rare days when I have nothing official to do!
I went to Hollywood yesterday to test out my new camera. Just walking Hollywood Boulevard provides plenty of unique photo-ops; I mean, how often do you see Superman just standing on the street?
But that was just gravy. My main intention was to combine a little exercise (little? I’m sore today! 3.5 miles up & down mountains isn’t little to me anymore!) with the photo-ops I had read about on the Runyan Canyon Loop – also known as the “Heart of Hollywood Hike.” It was worth it all around.
Yesterday was a bit on the cool side for L.A., but it was a very clear day – which made the hike even more appealing. And it did not disappoint – at the highest observation point, on my left I could see both the Hollywood Sign and snow-capped mountains in the distance, in front of me was all of L.A. and the breathtaking downtown skyline, and to my right I could see the Pacific Ocean all the way to Catalina Island. Amazing.
Here’s the snow-capped mountains in case you don’t believe me!
I also learned that I enjoyed taking pictures of people when they didn’t know it. Which could lead into an alternate career if the law school thing doesn’t work out (probably pays better anyway). Or it could lead to a lawsuit where I play the role of a defendant, too.
Either way, here are probably my three favorite pics from yesterday… (Now what can I photograph today? Hmm…)
Well, my old camera had one more good picture left in it – the moment of recognition yesterday morning when Hillary realized that Grandmother & Poppee had sent her a Wii game system for Christmas. Pretty fun. And I should warn you that Jody’s dad got me a new digital camera, so watch out!
Yesterday was such a nice day. Fun opening presents, a scrumptious Christmas breakfast, a little intrafamily Wii action, the Lakers/Celtics on television, all capped off with “A Christmas Story” last evening.
This morning is off to a teriffic start, too. Checking my email, I noticed that my friend, DeJon, posted a link to one of the greatest articles ever. Check out Rick Reilly HERE and discover the true meaning of Christmas.
Jody and I have tried not to go overboard at Christmas over the years, though our girls have definitely never done without. This year, as a poor grad student, we’re barely even on the boat, so no worries about falling overboard.
But we decided to blow a hundred bucks for a good Christmas memory today.
In spite of the forecasted ugly, rainy weather, we’re getting out in the Christmas Eve traffic for a performance of “A Christmas Carol” at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood this afternoon. We hear that the theatre itself is amazing, but I’m looking forward especially to seeing the stars – Christopher Lloyd, John Goodman, and Jane Leeves (Daphne, from “Frasier”).
You can read about the performance HERE. I learned this is Lloyd’s first time as Scrooge, and I hope all the sentiments that he was meant for that role are taken as compliments. 
Jane Seymour and Gene Wilder were on the original advertisement for the show…
but Seymour ended up sick and had to cancel, and the producers nixed the Wilder special effects scene. But seeing the three remaining stars on stage promises to be a cool Christmas Eve treat.
(Preacher Ken is always a good source for interesting things. Thought many of you would enjoy the poem below that he read this past Sunday.)
The children say the tree must reach the ceiling,
And so it does, angel on topmost branch,
Candy canes and golden globes and silver chains,
Trumpets that toot, and birds with feathered tails.
Each year we say, each year we fully mean:
“This is the loveliest tree of all.” This tree
Bedecked with love and tinsel reaches heaven.
A pagan throwback may have brought it here
Into our room, and yet these decked-out boughs
Can represent those other trees, the one
Through which we fell in pride, when Eve forgot
That freedom is man’s freedom to obey
And to adore, not to replace the light
With disobedient darkness and self-will.
On Twelfth Night when we strip the tree
And see its branches bare and winter cold
Outside the comfortable room, the tree
Is then the tree on which all darkness hanged,
Completing the betrayal that began
With that first stolen fruit. And then, O God,
This is the tree that Simon bore uphill,
This is the tree that held all love and life.
Forgive us, Lord, forgive us for that tree.
But now, still decked, adorned, in joy arrayed
For these great days of Christmas thanks and song,
This is the tree that lights our faltering way,
For when man’s first and proud rebellious act
Had reached its nadir on that hill of skulls
These shining, glimmering boughs remind us that
The knowledge that we stole was freely given
And we were sent the Spirit’s radiant strength
That we might know all things. We grasp for truth
And lose it till it comes to us by love.
The glory of Lebanon shines on this Christmas tree,
The tree of life that opens wide the gates.
The children say the tree must reach the ceiling,
And so it does: for me the tree has grown so high
It pierces through the vast and star-filled sky.
from “A Widening Light: Poems of the Incarnation”
Luci Shaw, editor
Don’t tell Jody, but I snuck out of the apartment yesterday for a tennis date with the lovely young lady pictured above. Not a bad way to spend the first day of winter.
It’s a rainy day in Malibu today, so we plan to just be indoor lazy. Tomorrow’s plan includes some last-minute shopping. And Christmas Eve plans include a trip to Hollywood to watch “A Christmas Carol” at the Kodak Theatre (starring John Goodman & Christopher Lloyd) and an evening service at the Stauffer Chapel with our church family.
If Jody didn’t have to work today and tomorrow, and if Erica was with us, it would look like a perfect week. But I’d better not complain when blessed so nicely – it’s a pretty good-looking week as is.
