Chris's Musings

Over the past couple of months, I have had a bunch of conversations with friends about what our "type" is... You know, what type of girl (or guy in the case of the girls I talked to) attracts you?  What type of person makes you stop and say.... (cue the Keaneu Reeves from Bill & Ted's)... Whoa! If I were an alien coming down to observe humanity and spent any time observing singles, I think I would scratch my head at how different humans will look at certain members of the opposite sex and say "Whoa!" while others of us would look at that exact same HOT person and say "Yeah, she's attractive, but I'm just not attracted to her."  I think the aliens would look at this apparently, uber-pickiness we have and conclude "No wonder they're all still single!"  (as if our parents and married friends don't) I wonder (and have wondered aloud in these conversations), are our "types" something that we constructed for ou...

One of my favorite movies of all time (I probably shouldn't confess to this, since I haven't watched it in a long time) is the movie Dead Poets Society.  In this movie, a prep school teacher played by Robin Williams motivates and expands the worlds of a group of boys to pursue their dreams and to truly live. It all started with a motivational speech in the hall of students past gone by... in which he whispered. Car-pe-Di-em. Make your lives, extraordinary.   Carpe Diem... Sieze the day.  It is a motto that many of us hold to.  We don't want to merely exist.  We want to live and make our mark on the world we have been placed in.  We want to make a difference. And we pursue what "making a difference" means for us.  Many of these things are great things - projects to be tackled, organizations to be built, deals to be won, ladders to be climbed, experiences to be had. As a result, many of us our busy... and I mean very busy.  Busyness is...

It is day 3 of the "hostage crisis" more affectionately known as the "government shutdown" (or government "slimdown" if you read FoxNews).  The hostages of this leadership debacle centered in Washington D.C. are the jobs of 800,000 Federal employees whose jobs have been furloughed as a result of this process.  I have a few friends in this group. I will leave my opinions about who's right and who's wrong to myself.  Okay - maybe.  I wish that this childishness in our government would come to an end, and perhaps it may with a change of leadership.  However, people have families to feed, mortgages to pay, and jobs to do (such as my friends at the CDC), so I thought I would offer some "real solutions" to help motivate our leaders to take action.  And to be honest, I'm not going to be too partisan with this list so I'm sure that you'll equally laugh or be offended at some of these suggestions.  That said, here are my top ten. ...

This was too good not to share. Tonight in small group, we talked about deep friendships, especially friendships among guys, and used the story of Jonathan and David from 1 Samuel 20 as our launching point.  This is a story from David's life in which he confides in Jonathan about what he's learned of Saul, and Jonathan goes to bat for David (and risking his life in the process). There were two things that really caught our attention (I originally had about 20 things brainstormed and five large bullet items to discuss) and occupied our time. First, was that Jonathan got involved in David's situation instead of merely giving advice.  See Jonathan's response to David's complaint: Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.” - 1 Sam 20:4 This is not a normal response in most of our worlds, especially in 21st century white collar America.  Generally, when a friend confides in us about a problem, our first response (as guys) is to give...

Yesterday, after a long work week, I took off out of the city and away from the busyness of life and technology to go hike the Panther Creek Falls trail with a group of friends.  I have been looking forward to this hike for a while because a.) Panther Creek has been on my "really want to do" hikes for a while, and b.) I hadn't had the opportunity to get up to the mountains much this summer and had organized this day trip to do just that. I love hiking; I think I like getting out into nature in general but there's something about hiking that makes me feel happy.  Perhaps it's from my Boy Scout days and memories of treks to Philmont and camping trips; who knows? And I mean, I love hiking (not just walking).  If there isn't some adventure to where we're going then I'm not all that into it.  Panther Creek Falls was that kind of adventure.  Rumor is that it's one of the most fantastic waterfalls in Georgia and I couldn't wait to get to it. And...

The other night, I went out to iTunes to add some Country songs to my playlist.  I've been listening to The Bull (one of the Country stations here in Atlanta) a lot lately and it was time to make a few purchases. Revoke my man card if you like, but I really like ballads.  One of the songs that I downloaded (partly because I love the lead vocalist's voice) is "If I die young" by The Band Perry.  I've been listening to it a lot lately, and have gotten really stuck on the words of the last verse... A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I'll sell 'em for a dollar They're worth so much more after I'm a goner And maybe then you'll hear the words I been singing Funny, when you're dead how people start listening Wow.  I don't want to speculate on what the song writer was intending to convey in this prose, but it appears like the desperate words of someone crying out for someone to listen; and in a final act of desperation destroying th...

This has to be my favorite romantic song out right now... And I'm saving this dance. Yes, I am a "hopeless romantic" :-) "Hey Pretty Girl" Hey pretty girl, won't you look my way Love's in the air tonight You can bet you make this ol' boy's day Hey pretty girl, won't you look my way Hey pretty girl, can I have this dance And the next one after that Gonna make you mine there's a real good chance Hey pretty girl, can I have this dance Hey pretty girl, it feels so right Just like it's meant to be All wrapped up in my arms so tight Hey pretty girl, it feels so right Life's a long and winding ride Better have the right one by your side And happiness don't drag its feet Time moves faster than you think Hey pretty girl, wanna take you home My momma's gonna love you She'll make me sleep on the couch, I know Hey pretty girl, wanna take you home Hey pretty girl, let's build some dreams And a house on a piece of land W...