Month: October 2005

Completely Random Dream

I never remember my dreams, and so I was very surprised this morning when I woke up and remembered an extremely bizarre dream sequence.

In my dream I was reading an op-ed piece by someone–I’m pretty sure it was Victor Davis Hanson. As I read a sentence stuck in my mind, “If you sneak around on private property long enough, you will convince yourself you have a right to be there.”

How bizarre.

Tonight I’ll probably have a dream about hearing Hugh Hewitt say something like, “If you trash-talk a nominee long enough, you will convince yourself she is unqualified to be a janitor.”

Induced Combustion

Lindsey Hawley (who will soon escape the frozen tundra of Alaksa and move in with Paula and I) burst into flame the other day, prompting reflection (and no small amount of laughter) on our part.

Our thoughts:

  • We’re fortunate not to have a gas stove.
  • We’re fortunate not to favor flammable sleepwear.
  • We’re fortunate not to have large windows in our kitchen.
  • We’re fortunate to have learned of Lindsey’s proclivities so early. New rule: Lindsey can’t cook coed. And we’ll start storing a spare robe next to the fire extinguisher.

What All Religions Have In Common

At a three-hour Stanford Associated Religions meeting last Friday I finally discovered what all religions have in common: an aversion to meetings, particulary the long and bureaucratic sort. Especially meetings in which the rules fall like manna from heaven. For instance, the Office For Religious Life (an office I generally and genuinely enjoy working with), decided that last year’s “Unified Christian Gathering” was deceptively titled because the Mormons (and a few other groups) were not invited to help plan the event and so now we have new rules governing event titles. And for a few minutes there I thought we were about to be required to clear all guest speakers with the student activitities staff. Yeesh!

Serenity

I went to go see Serenity with two students tonight.

It was really, really, really good. The audience burst into applause when it was over.

It was funny. The humor was MUCH more amusing than most comedies manage.

It was suspenseful. One girl in the audience screamed at one particular tense moment.

It was well-written. Very well-written. Every character was unique, made sense, and needed to be there.

I loved this movie.

A Dartmouth Double Standard?

Noah Riner, the student body president of Dartmouth, told incoming students that they should focus on developing morally as much as academically and that Jesus can bring moral transformation. A ruckus ensued, with the apparent justification being that student presidents shouldn’t use such occasions to promote their own idiosyncratic views of the world.

Oddly enough, a similar ruckus does not seem to have followed the then student body president’s call for the legalization of pot two years earlier.

Perhaps the issue isn’t that Mr. Riner propagated his own views, but that the message of Jesus still makes people uncomfortable after two millenia.

Just a theory, mind you.