A Review

Publicity Photos by Jeff Frazier

More info: Nashville Shakespeare Festival

I'd forgotten how much I like live theater 

This afternoon, Monica and I went to see Eddie George in the title role of Julius Caesar. It was at the Troutt Theater on the Belmont University campus. This small theater was sold out (at least on the main floor, there may have been some available in the balcony), which may have been 200 people.

I was very impressed with the whole production. The acting was very good, yes including Eddie George. He has done several other acting gigs, and seems to do well at it. The actor playing Brutus I thought really brought some sincerity to the role, and the actress who played Caesar's wife was excellent. There was also a young lady in the play, Maya Abrams, who Monica and DJ know. 

The staging and direction showed some imagination as well. Having the actors in the crowd scenes start out in the audience brought us into those scenes, especially the Brutus speech at Caesar's funeral ("Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears"). The use of lighting and the minimum stage props helped give some dimension to the scenes. And the death of Caesar was brilliant! Instead of just having 5 or 6 guys stab him, Caesar fought back, and it was the most active fight I've ever personally seen on stage, so much so that, when Brutus made the fatal blow, you actually gasped, and felt the sorrow in Caesar's "Et tu, Brutus?"

I love live theater, especially when it's well done. And reasonably priced ($22 each today). It always takes a little extra work for Shakespeare because of the flowery language, but it's worth it. So many people will probably never experience the atmosphere of live theater, the feeling that those actors on that stage not far away are doing this just for you. Today was the last day for Julius Caesar, but I'm going to keep my eyes open for further productions, especially Shakespeare in the Park. 

Personality Flaw

I find myself doing it all the time. Someone will come up to me at work and ask some kind of silly question, and after they leave, I'm thinking "That *#@?*. Can't they see I'm busy? I get so tired of that stuff." And then, moments later, I'm kicking myself for my lack of patience.
Today I'm working in the cooler, and suddenly several boxes that were in the doors are falling where someone outside had pushed them back. Now I'm standing there with 3 or 4 boxes scattered on the floor. To say that I was livid is an understatement. I'm mentally calling that member every name in the book. As I'm putting the boxes back, the door opens and standing outside is the member. "Sorry" he says. It only takes a moment for me to realize that he's mentally challenged. Man,do I feel bad!
"That is God telling me again to be more patient," I said to myself.

I don't know why I have so little patience. It bugs me that I have such a quick temper. I really do work on trying to correct this part of my personality. One thing that I pray for constantly is divine help to be more easy-going and less judgmental And I guess it's better than it used to be, but still! It absolutely drives me up a wall that I can be so immature.

This past Sunday was the baptism of our pastor's infant daughter. They also had a service for everybody, a Renewal of Your Baptism type thing. There was a lot of talk about how everyone is special. They had a bowl of water-smoothed stones there for everybody to take one, as a constant reminder. So I'm carrying it with me all the time, hoping that it may be an influence on me. Every time I feel that patience slipping, I rub the stone to remind myself to calm down and relax. We'll see how it goes. Two days isn't a large enough sample size!

(Sorry if this is a boring post. I'm writing to get it off my chest. Maybe if I force myself to see it out in the light of day, that may help me learn how to manage this flaw.) 

Tebowing

There's an interesting discussion going on over on a very good friend's Facebook page. It concerns Tim Tebow. It came up here during the playoff game between Tebow's Broncos and New England. Right now, 3rd quarter, 2 minutes left, the Patriots are ahead 42-10. Tebow right now is 5 for 16 for 61 yards. If you're not a big football fan, suffice it to say that those numbers are not very good. The Broncos are simply out-classed. But that's not what the conversation's about.

This is what the conversation's centered on.

The question is who does the above action promote? 

I don't think anyone doubts that Tim Tebow is a fine person. Every game, he brings a family that is going through some difficult times to Denver, sets them up in a hotel, takes them to the game, and generally tries to do something special for them. He seems to have a genuine enthusiasm for the game and how fortunate he is to be able to play in the NFL. 

All reports that I've ever read say that he is sincere in his faith. I believe that it takes a certain amount of intestinal fortitude to continue as he does with all the negative talk. I think that he is a role model for others who may not be so sure that it is OK to profess your faith so. But, again, the question: Who does it promote?

Is it really necessary for Tebow to pray out in the middle of the endzone for everyone to see? This is copied and pasted from an image search:

Google 

Search tebowing
About 1,520,000,000 results (0.24 seconds)

A billion and a half pictures. Most of them are of Tim Tebow.
I think that your opinion of this is based on about 1.5 billion different influences. People either like it or they don't. It doesn't mean that they have more or less faith than anyone else. It's all a matter of comfort levels, and an individual's sense of propriety. I for one am glad to see someone so strong in their faith. I think that he may encourage others who need it. To me, a lot of his public displays are a bit over the top, and getting a little old and worn out.

The real problem is the media.

And that may be a good argument that he may need to back down a little. Last week, Tebow threw for 316 yards. Immediately, many in the media started talking about a (divine?) connection between that yardage and John 3:16, a verse that Tebow promoted in his college days by writing it in his eye black. THAT is over the top. Stop it. That's enough.

From the aforementioned Facebook discussion:

Carson W**** OMG!! One of the judges on the Miss America pageant just asked a question centered around Tebow. For Pete's sake! (I actually said something else, but cleaned it up for Facebook, lol)

I wrote this to remind everyone that people's opinions are their opinions, and they have a right to them. Good, open, honest discussion is healthy. Getting too intense and personal is not (which didn't happen in that conversation, by the way.) Let's remain civil, people.

John 3:16
New International Version (NIV)

 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

The "S" Word

From Channel 4's Weather page for Wednesday at 7:45PM

EDIT 1/14/12:This map must be updating, because this is not the one I pasted here. The original map showed FORECAST snow totals for Thursday, 1/12/12. Don't know what I did here, but this is kinda cool.

Now I'm sure you notice that there is NO WHITE over the city of Nashville. But does that stop the tweets coming in from all the local TV news?

Josh DeVine @WSMVJoshDeVine 5h  Reply  Retweeted  Favorite · Open

According to @TDOTDeanna, crews will start preparing in the morning for possible snowfall. Rain kept them from brining today.  This is from my favorite station

WTVF - NewsChannel 5 @NC5 29m  Reply  Retweet  Favorite · Open

Are you ready to see some snow? TDOT is! They have 50,859 tons of salt, 632,300 gallons of brine, 234 salt... fb.me/1m5OQ2Kqq  I don't really like these guys

WKRNHeadlines @WKRNHeadlines 9h  Reply  Retweet  Favorite · Open

FROM WKRN-TV: Snow possible in Middle Tenn. Thursday bit.ly/AD4zXK  Can you tell this is the #3 station in town?

And a local sports talk show is having fun with it:

Brent, Clay & Blaine @3HL1045 2h  Reply  Retweet  Favorite · Open

Yes. Come see us! Get some bread & milk #thundersnow RT @SportsGirlTN: Is tomorrow the day @3HL1045 is at Kroger in Hermitage? #myhood  This is a really great show, these guys crack me up.

I'm not sure that this even requires editorializing on my part...

18 years old

So it was pretty cold when we left to go to the hospital that morning. It ended up with snow flurries that afternoon. Somewhere between those two events, DJ was born. 

DJ stands for Daniel, Jr, obviously. Now he goes by Daniel to most of the general public, but I still stumble over that. He says that he doesn't care one way or the other. Good thing.

He was always a pretty good kid. He never cried much as an infant. He was never any trouble to get to sleep. In fact, we were pretty impressed that he would often put himself to bed when he got to be a toddler. He always wanted to help. I've told the story a million times about the time that he and I were sitting in the family room in the old house. It was a long, narrow room with a bathroom at one end. He got up and was heading that way, so I called "Hey, go to the bathroom for me while you're in there." He said ok, took a couple more steps, stopped and said "How do I do that?"

You remember that beer commercial with the frogs, right? He was real little then, sitting in my lap when it came on one time. The next thing you know, he and I were sitting there going "Bud" at each other and laughing like loons.

To this day, I still find myself wishing he hadn't gotten hurt on that tackle and having to end his football career. He really loved playing. He was in the first grade and one day we were watching football when he said "I can't wait until I'm old enough to play." I told him they have leagues for his age group, and the rest as they say is history. He played 8 of the next 10 years after that. {I've come back 2 or 3 times to edit this paragraph to make the first line more powerful, but I can't quite get it to express the true sadness I feel about the situation without being too dramatic.}

I try not to treat him like a kid, especially in front of his friends, but I am a dad, after all. For his birthday yesterday, he wanted to go to BB King's Blues Club downtown for dinner, so the family met him and his girlfriend Savannah and 3 other friends there for dinner. Of course, while we were there, I pulled a dad on him when I heard him order his cheeseburger medium-well. Now I've always ordered his stuff medium-rare for him, so when I heard that, I thought he misspoke. Yes, you got it, I asked him if he was sure he wanted it medium-well. He rolled his eyes with that teenage patience and said "Yes, Dad. I'm sure."

Happy birthday, buddy. I expect the next 18 years to be just as much fun!

Murfreesboro Road and Me

We live in a part of Nashville called Antioch. Now, Antioch has become basically a generic name for a very large and spread out portion of southeastern Nashville-Davidson County.  A friend of mine who is a life-long resident says he is frequently surprised at areas that the people on the news will say is part of Antioch.There are all kinds of areas in Antioch, from well-to-do family areas to run-down shopping malls, from streets that you can walk down at 3AM to areas where you're scared 24/7. (We live in a good part of town, don't worry.) Because of this diversity, it has become quite a melting pot of different types of people and cultures.

If you're not familiar with Nashville, there is a major road that runs through what is basically the center of Antioch called Murfreesboro Road. It runs from downtown (where, like many roads in Nashville, it has a different name, Lafayette Street), into and through Antioch, and all the way into Rutherford County to the town of, yes, you guessed it, Murfreesboro. Most of this road is 4 lane divided highway, and even if not divided, still 4 lanes.

THIS is the sign you see on about 90% of this bustling, busy, major thoroughfare. So why do I constantly find myself going 30 MPH here? I'm driving down the street in the left lane, and if there's two other cars on the road, one will be in front of me going 30, and one in the right lane half a car length ahead going 31, preventing me from going around. We'll travel down the road like this for two or three blocks. One of the most amazing things about this is that we'll brake at intersections, even when we have green lights. Finally, physics being what it is, we'll get a little separation, and I can pass the guy. Then I get two or three blocks of speed limit driving (which feels like the Autobahn by then), until BOOM! there's the next group, doing the same as above. Sometimes I have to ride with my foot on the brake because MY CAR DOESN'T IDLE THAT SLOW! This has even happened on my way into work, which as many of you know is generally about 4:30 in the morning (3:30 the last couple of weeks). Must be a law or something.

Many years ago, my best friend commented that he was surprised that I didn't have a bunch of speeding tickets. He said I drove faster than anyone he knew. I don't think that's true, but I admit that I drive as fast as the road and conditions allow. I've only had one speeding ticket in my life (given to me on Oporto Blvd. near the old Eastwood Mall in Birmingham on my 20th birthday.There's something cruel about a cop handing you a ticket and saying "Happy birthday.") I don't want to go 100, I just want to go the speed limit. I constantly tell these other drivers (yes, I talk to them in my car) that I agree that it's their God-given right to drive 20 MPH....just do it in the RIGHT-HAND LANE!

And don't get me started on phone use in the car. I was pulling away from the curb in front of DJ's school today and while waiting for a lady to go by, she stopped dead in the middle of the block right in front of me. Even though I was sticking out into the road at a 45 degree angle, even with my front end pointed right at her passenger door, she obviously didn't know I was there. It took a serious horn to get her to move. Why can't everyone drive as well as I do?

When NORAD tracked Santa

When NORAD tracked Santa: Bruno Bowden on the TED Blog

This is an interesting story about how this cool tradition came about. I had read this story before, and it always makes me feel good.

The Post Office and their work with the letters to Santa program gets me too. (See Miracle on 34th Street. The original is the best.)

Both of these programs are examples of how good things can happen when people want good things to happen. It's so easy in today's world of hustle and bustle and economic troubles and terrorists and space junk falling to forget how easy it is to do this stuff. Another one is trick or treat. Imagine a world where everybody forgets their troubles and offers free candy to all the kids in the neighborhood. Every year at Halloween I think about how cool this is. (We live in a family area, no doubt. We probably have 100 kids come to the door. I love it.)

Do you find yourself shaking your head (smh) all the time, saying "What's this world coming to?" Do you sometimes feel like everyone in the world is selfish and self-centered? I know I do. I'm going to have to return to this post often. I'm tired of being cynical. I want to be positive. There's a New Year's resolution for you. Attitude adjustment. Do you need one too?