Recovering Baptist

Several times when I was home from college for Christmas or perhaps spring break I got a call that went something like this:

Hi. Can I speak with RB?
Speaking.
May I speak with you about your investments?
No.
OK.
Goodbye.

Finally one year I told him that I had no money to invest because I was a poor college student. He laughed and then said, “So I guess you don’t have a six figure salary or $50,000 in assets then, do you?” I never heard from him again. After a bit of thinking I realized that he must have received my name from some list, and there was only one way for him to make such a conclusion - I subscribed to National Review, and I had since my junior year of high school. Yes, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I was a strange kid. What kind of high schooler would read a magazine whose average reader earned over $100,000 in the early 1990’s?

I haven’t read NR for many years now, but I still have a fond respect for that publication and especially for its founder. William F. Buckley died this morning. The conservative and libertarian movements owe him a moment of silence; we would have no political voice if it were not for him. Our country could use more people like him - a man who could combine keen political insight with wit and an astounding vocabulary. May he enjoy his reunion with his wife and celebrate meeting his Creator.

Thanks to ATLmalcontent for this one.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a blog which better describes my friends, family, and me. It’s funny because it’s true. And now my non-white friend can understand why white people love Apple, indie music, home rennovation, and microbrews thanks to Stuff White People Like.

Lent is not a very popular topic. You don’t usually ask someone, “so what are you giving up for Lent” in the same way you ask, “so what are you doing for Christmas?” Of course, maybe that’s because the marketing people haven’t figured out how to make money off of Lent. Sure there’s Mardi Gras, but at best that’s about Fat Tuesday and at worst it’s an excuse for debauchery. There are no Lent gifts; I’ve never seen a Lent greeting card; there are no obligatory Lent parties where where your presence or lack thereof will be duly noted. Maybe this is why I’m drawn to it.

I didn’t grow up practicing Lent. Baptists don’t particularly like Lent; it’s too Catholic. But in recent years I’ve been introduced to Lent and its purpose, which is quite strange. Forty days of giving up something good for the purpose of physically particularlizing our need for Christ seems like such a strange and old-fashioned customer. But it’s a custom that we post-moderns should embrace. Contrary to what many Christians want to admit Age of Enlightenment infiltrated Christianity and attempted to reduce our faith to a series of logical conclusions, but there is so much more meaning to our lives than mere logic can bring. And so Lent, with its seemingly outdated requirements, can be meaningful, provided that we actually engage with it and don’t just mindlessly follow a series of proscribed rules.

And so, for a very post-modern observation of Lent I’m giving up a very post-modern activity. From now until Easter I am giving up idle internet surfing. It’s not that I’m giving up the ‘net altogether, just those sites that typically suck my time such as Fark, Drudge, Digg, etc. For some people this might not seem like a major thing to give up, but when you work at home by yourself, those sorts of sites replace the water cooler; they are where I go when I have a few minutes of downtime between conference calls or emails. I’ve decided that sites like atlbloggers.net or even facebook (which I’m being sucked in to) are places where I talk to friends and are not idle surfing, so I’ll still be around there. But for some of my favorite sites it’s goodbye until Easter.

So, if for the next month plus I seem like I don’t know what’s going on in the world, now you know why…

My weekend went pretty much as expected. The only problem was Saturday night. What should have been a few hours of drinking beer turned into many. Seven to be exact. I didn’t get the hangover one of my friends did, but my body decided it had had enough. Between the long hours and crazy stress of last week and the late Saturday night, it decided to make me spend Monday in bed by giving in to a cold.

I’m mostly better now. At least I don’t have bronchitis like one of our boys or an ear infection like the other. My wife’s the healthiest person in the house right now; all she has is a fractured leg…

After pulling nearly a 60 hours week, here are my weekend plans:

• Friday night - sleep
• Saturday - play with the family
• Saturday night - drink massive quantities of good, high gravity beer with friends
• Sunday - stumble into church (it’s good to be Pesbyterian!)
• Sunday night - sleep

Have a great weekend everyone. Here’s hoping your week wasn’t as stressful as mine.

Listening to Mike Huckabee tonight took me back over a decade to the last time I attended a Baptist church. I was just waiting for him to break from the political babble for an alter call. No surprise he trounced Romney and edged out McCain here in the Bible Belt, but does he really think he has a chance anywhere else in this country? I’m not sure that even a dead boy in McCain’s bedroom would end his march to November right now…