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A call for plot creativity, or, Why is it always the Christians?
This weekend I finished up reading Rules of Deception
Now, I realize Dan Brown made it cool to rip on Christians and the church with The DaVinci Code, indeed, it seems nearly de rigueur these days to have Christians as the bad guys. And certainly as an author Mr. Reich is allowed to make whatever plot choices he wants to. He’s very even-handed with his other groups of people - there are good and bad CIA agents, good and bad Iranians, good and bad Americans, and etc, in his plot. But Christians? They’re all bad. And shadowy. And in lock-step. And willing to do anything, kill anyone, incite nuclear war, all for the purpose of “hastening the Rapture”. Ugh.
As I’ve been thinking about it, this is one of the reasons that Tom Clancy, one of the better authors in this genre a decade ago, had such good stories: he was willing to use the real-life bad-guys of the day and didn’t feel any politically-correct need to pick somebody else. Hence, during the Cold War, the Soviets were the bad guys, even though there were some good Soviets among them (The Hunt for Red October, The Cardinal of the Kremlin). Once the Wall fell and the new fear was Islamic Fundamentalism, Clancy went with it. In The Sum of All Fears there are good Muslims and bad Muslims, good Jews and bad Jews, heck, good Americans and bad Americans. But Clancy never felt the need to invent some other bad guys just to be politically correct.
So I enjoyed Rules of Deception
C. S. Lewis on Consistency in the Worship Service
Pastor Richard gave me this wonderful (if a bit long) quote from C. S. Lewis regarding consistency in the worship service:
I think our business as laymen is to take what we are given and make the best of it. And I think we should find this a great deal easier if what we were given was always and everywhere the same.
To judge from their practice, very few Anglican clergymen take this view. It looks as if they believed people can be lured to go to church be incessant brightenings, lightenings, lengthenings, abridgements, simplifications, and complications of the service. And it is probably true that a new, keen vicar will usually be able to form within his parish a minority who are in favour of his innovations. The majority, I believe, never are. Those who remain - many give up churchgoing altogether - merely endure.
Is this simply because the majority are hide-bound? I think not. They have a good reason for their conservatism. Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And they don’t go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service, or, if you prefer, to enact it. Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best - if you like, it “works” best - when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice… The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.
But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshiping. The important question about the Grail was “for what does it serve?” “Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the God.”
A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question “What on earth is he up to now?” will intrude. It lays one’s devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, “I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.”
Thys my whole liturgiological position really boils down to an entreaty for permanence and uniformity. I can make do with almost any kind of service whatever, if only it will stay put. But if each form is snatched away just when I am beginning to feel at home in it, then I can never make any progress in the art of worship.
-- from Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
Washington Vacation 2008: The Beach
After arriving late on Monday and having vehicle difficulty, we took the new minivan out to the Washington coast to spend a couple of days at the beach. We encountered several of these signs along the way… not something we typically see back home in Iowa.
The three-hour drive to the appropriately-named Long Beach brought us from temperatures in the upper 70’s in the Seattle area to 60 degrees, fog, and 30 mph winds in Long Beach. Yowza! We were glad we had remembered to pack jackets. We stayed at the Lighthouse Oceanfront Resort as part of a little deal where I created them a new website. We had a two-bedroom condo that, when the fog was out, provided us a view of the Pacific from our deck. The girls had much fun on the beach even in the cold; Laura found a real live clam, which stayed real and live until it had set in our minivan for a day, at which point it became real and very ripe. To spend actual time in the water, though, we enjoyed the heated pool at the resort.
The second day we ventured out to check out one of the nearby lighthouses. We tried to figure out how to reach the lighthouse on Cape Disappointment, but couldn’t figure out which road to take. So instead we visited the North Head Lighthouse, and while we couldn’t tour it (no children under 7 allowed on the tour), we still had a nice little walk and got some nice pictures of the lighthouse and the coast. Apparently the North Head Lighthouse records some of the strongest winds along the Pacific coast. We didn’t quite blow away, but it was seriously breezy.
Having traveled to the coast, the one thing Becky really wanted to eat was seafood. We did a little research and tried out a couple of different places that appeared to be somewhat family-friendly and within our budget. My conclusion is that seafood places in tourist towns must plan to sell you overpriced seafood and then make up for it with terrible service. The first night we tried a place called Doogers, and while my food was decent, the server totally forgot to bring me the Diet Pepsi I ordered. Becky’s combination platter was completely missing one of its major elements, a fact which wasn’t brought to light until Becky decided to ask for help identifying each of the elements on the platter. They went ahead and cooked up a razor clam and brought it out to her at the end of the meal, but still, come on, folks. The second night we tried The Crab Pot, supposedly a local favorite since 1946. We thought that surely it would be an improvement over Doogers. No such luck. Higher prices, poorer food, and incredibly awful service.
Still, though, we found a local bakery that was fantastic, and overall very much enjoyed ourselves in Long Beach. It would have been fun to have another day to spend traipsing around, but our schedule called us to move on. Next up: Yakima, en route to Leavenworth.
Note: I’m putting all the pics from the trip in this set on Flickr. There are far more than what I’m going to post on the blog. Grandparents will want to visit the link to see all the pics. :-)
An apology of sorts
I had really intended to keep the blog up-to-date while on this vacation - after all, during the vacation I have even more to write about than I would otherwise. Sadly, though… well, maybe not so sadly, I’ve been vacationing rather than blogging. :-) I have been taking lots of pictures, though, so they’ll show up eventually, along with some thoughts.
Short summary, though: Andrew and Heather were married yesterday evening in a beautiful outdoor ceremony. The weather was fantastic, everything was well-organized and -executed, and the party afterward was a lot of fun. Now it’s Sunday morning and all of us who remain here are more than a little tired… but it was quite worth it.
More later, I promise.
The Flat Tire
A couple of pics of our minivan’s flat tire the other night. Less dramatic because the guys already had the van jacked up. The thing was totally flat.
In Seattle
Day 1 of our vacation finally brings us to Seattle. Our flights were only delayed a little - we arrived at SEA maybe 30 minutes after our scheduled arrival time. Our luggage came through intact. (Had we known that the minivan we are renting had built-in child seats, we could’ve saved ourselves one piece of luggage… but ah well.)
The girls handled the trip wonderfully. Addie was mostly excited about seeing all the airplanes - her little nose was pasted to the window as much as possible, though she had to be up on her knees to see out the plane window - she’s too short to see out otherwise! Laura’s greatest excitement came from seeing the mountains out the airplane window. She’s never been to the mountains before, and when she saw the snowcaps, she let out a loud whoop, and kept yelling “Mountains, Mommy, mountains!”
We got in our aforementioned minivan and headed the few miles to our hotel. I was thinking the van felt a little funny but wasn’t quite sure. When we got to the hotel, it was definitely feeling funny… and yep, there was a flat tire on the back. Ugh. As frustrating as it was to have rented a vehicle with a flat right off the lot, I must say that Alamo handled it pretty well - I called the local rental place, they told me that it’d be no charge since it was right off the lot, they forwarded me to roadside assistance who had somebody at my location within 45 minutes to put on the spare. Then I drove the van on the donut spare back to SEATAC to exchange it for a different van. That was an hour and a half I would have preferred not to waste, but hey, it’s done now.
Tomorrow we’re headed down to spend a couple days on the coast. Can’t wait.
Packing for the trip
With the expense of airline travel these days, we thought we might consider a method of cost-reduction for this trip.
Laura demonstrates the proper way to pack the bag:
She feels pretty safe since she’s just a bit to big to fit into that bag.
Seattle here we come!
T-minus 7d
It’s starting to hit home that one week from now we will be on an airplane, with the kiddos, headed for our Washington vacation and Andrew’s wedding. We’ve gotten to the list-making stage. What all do we need to take? What will the weather be like? (It’s a lot different on the coast than it is in Leavenworth where the wedding will be!) What suitcases are we taking along? How many bags will we have to check? Do we have seats assigned on all the flights? And on and on and on.
For me, the most stressful part of the trip is from now until we are at Seatac with a rental car and all our bags. After that, it’s all downhill. I don’t think it’s really gonna be as bad as I’m worried it will be… but I can be a good worrier. I’m really looking forward to this vacation, though - both for Andrew & Heather’s wedding and just for the chance to get away - almost 2 full weeks away from the office once you count the holiday this week and then our trip. It’ll be so nice.
Stay focused, Chris… still three more days of work.
Ten
Ten years ago today, on a sweltering night in Charlotte, NC, friends and family gathered as Becky and I exchanged our vows and became husband and wife. I don’t remember a whole lot about the ceremony itself; the pictures, though, show a geeky boy of 21 looking warm in a basic tuxedo, and a girl looking beautiful if a bit uncomfortable in a white dress and veil. We look so young! Were we really ready to start upon a lifetime together?
Ten years later we have been through much. New places to live, new jobs, new friends; two beautiful little girls added to our family; a lot of what we promised in our vows: sometimes better, sometimes worse, sometimes richer, sometimes poorer, sometimes sickness, sometimes health. One of the few constants through it all has been my wife Becky by my side, supporting, encouraging, and loving me. While we have our ups and downs, we truly do make a great team.
That night ten years ago my buddy Daniel sang a song that Rich Mullins wrote that included these lines:
If you find a love that’s tender, If you find someone who’s true Then thank the Lord - He’s been doubly good to you.
And truly He has been good. I love you, Becky, and thanks for 10 wonderful years.
Counting down the days...
Once today is complete I will have only 6 more working days until vacation… and oh my, am I ever looking forward to it. My brother Andrew is getting married on July 12 and we are using that as an excuse to take a week’s vacation to Washington. (The state, not the district.) We have several days of sightseeing and relaxation scheduled around the wedding, and it should be a great time. We’ll hit Seattle, the Pacific coast, the mountains, and back to Seattle before heading home.
Preparations have been in a lull for a while - there was the frenzy months ago when we purchased our airline tickets, made hotel reservations, etc, but then we put it aside and it’s just been lurking… and now we are back to planning in earnest. At this point Becky is starting to figure out what all needs to be brought along, how we can fit it into as few bags as possible, and so on.
I’ll admit it - the one thing I’m nervous/fearful of on this trip is the airline travel. We’re taking the girls on their first airplane trip, which will be fun, and we’ve planned in longish layovers, to try to ensure things go smoothly… but it’s still a cross-country airline trip, and we’re still connecting through Chicago O’Hare. I will be praying much that things just go smoothly. Once we’re in Seattle with our rental car and all our baggage, the next week should be just brilliant fun.
So that’s my little update for today. I’ll try for a more substantive post tomorrow as a major milestone occurs in the Hubbs household.