The Road Les Travels

it’s been a very interesting week. on monday, i got one of those phone calls that everyone dreads. “your dad had a heart attack this morning and he’s in surgery. when can you get here?” i have to say that it was not completely unexpected. my grandfather died of a heart attack at 56 and my dad hasn’t really done much to put the odds against it happening. still, it was a shock. the good thing is that he’s doing much better. they didn’t have to crack him open. angioplasty and a couple of wire-mesh stents were able to open the blockages in his arteries that caused the problem. since then, he’s improved steadily and i expect him to be out of the hospital in a couple of days. still, it was strange to walk into that room and see him lying there, connected to all the equipment, and to see the fear that he had. That’s pretty much over now, but i think the memory will linger.

if you’re reading this, please take a moment to pray for my family and for your own.

i was visiting a catholic church today and discovered that they no longer call confession confession. they now call it reconciliation. i really don’t know what to think about this from a theological perspective, but my first impression of it is favorable. it seems like saying the same thing only with a more positive spin. “confession” sounds like a real downer, like something most people wouldn’t want to do. on the other hand, “reconciliation” sounds like something anyone would want to do. it’s an interesting change. in fact, that sounds like something that the protestant church wouldn’t feel the need to protest so much. protestants wouldn’t really care to reconcile through a priest, but it would be cool to reconcile with another person, or more specifically share with another person what’s been going on and relate to them your need to reconcile with God. that would be more of an accountability partner sort of thing…very cool.

i was visiting a catholic church today and discovered that they no longer call confession confession. they now call it reconciliation. i really don’t know what to think about this from a theological perspective, but my first impression of it is favorable. it seems like saying the same thing only with a more positive spin. “confession” sounds like a real downer, like something most people wouldn’t want to do. on the other hand, “reconciliation” sounds like something anyone would want to do. it’s an interesting change. in fact, that sounds like something that the protestant church wouldn’t feel the need to protest so much. protestants wouldn’t really care to reconcile through a priest, but it would be cool to reconcile with another person, or more specifically share with another person what’s been going on and relate to them your need to reconcile with God. that would be more of an accountability partner sort of thing…very cool.

btw…if you’re reading this you should check out yimay’s photoblog. she gets a lot out of her lomo, as you will see.

i just got an email from yimay yang, the chinese american princess in which she suggested i check out using movable type instead of blogger. it’s something to consider, though i’m not sure i’ve got the savvy required to install it. we’ll see about that one, too. i’m really working hard to give people the opportunity to comment on this blog. i hope someone decides to visit it someday.

i’m trying to get comments to work on this thing. i haven’t quite figured it out yet. i don’t really know if there’s anyone out there who would want to comment anyway, but we’ll see what happens.

It should be easy to post a downloadable video. It isn’t. Check out this. We compressed this thing about a dozen times before settling on this version. I think it turned out okay. Let me know what you think.

i’m trying to figure out how to put up a photoblog. any input is appreciated. well, not any input…any input that leads to the successful completion of the aforementioned photoblog