TumblogWritings, musings and generally lighthearted banter

Lately, I feel like I’ve had the same conversation over and over with different friends, coworkers, and family.  The issue centers on a friend of theirs who is 25 years or older and refusing to grow up.  Much like the movie Failure to Launch depicted a few years ago, there does seem to be a [...]

I am hesitant to write this blog, because I don’t want to throw one more Christian cliché into an unending swirl of pain-related platitudes.  I do not mean to say that I believe the statements we say about pain to each other aren’t true, I just believe that dealing with real tragedy when it occurs [...]

In an increasingly complex world, we place labels on people, philosophies, politics, and anything else we can to help us make sense of it all.  Labels are a form of discernment, or what Malcolm Gladwell calls “thin-slicing.”  At the same time, labels can be destructive, and must be used cautiously. As all blogs I write [...]

In the summer of 2001, when I was 20 years old, I sat crying in the hallway of a convention center in Panama City Beach, FL.  I was a small group leader of 5 energetic and rebellious 10th graders that week, a group I’d invested the previous year with, so I highly anticipated getting away [...]

There are those childhood memories that burrow deep into our conscience, the moments that we perhaps remember what we are wearing or what perfume the person next to us was wearing. For some reason I remember putting on my favorite I.O.U. hoodie (that brand went out around the end of the first Bush presidency I [...]

The older I get, the less and less I am shocked. Whether it’s a natural disaster or a friend’s divorce, there is very little left in the world that causes me to stop in my tracks out of disbelief.  That seems like a sad plight I suppose, or like the words of a jaded old [...]

Recently, Todd Phillips, director of The Hangover movies, said he found his inspiration behind the series from the awkwardness he saw in male relationships.  He compared the Sex in the City show and films to his, and he talked about the grace and ease behind female relationships, and how it is so much smoother than [...]

The greatest gift to give those around you is the gift of self-awareness.  No one walks away from someone because they have faults, but everyone walks away from someone that has faults they refuse to acknowledge.  All of our problems don’t begin with self-deception, but self-deception always makes every problem worse. As Chris Hedges states, [...]

“Children aged 9 to 11 now hold “fame” as their No. 1 value. Fame ranked 15th in 1997.”- Journal of Psychology Research on Cyberspace Youth workers, our job is getting tougher. We wake up every morning to invite students to follow a guy who said the first are last.  These same students have already been [...]

A couple years ago, I got invited onto the Lady Antebellum tour bus. I had just watched their show and I owned their CD, so I was a bit anxious to sit and make small talk with them.  I walked on their bus and waited to shake their hand, and was surprised when one of [...]