the tindog coffeehouse

It’s Thursday night, and as I type this, my grandmother’s health is failing rapidly. She’ll be moved to Hospice care in the next day or so, and she’s not expected to survive much longer.

I will no doubt miss her terribly. Her antiquated West Texas slang, her amazing homemade peach cobbler, and even her constant nitpicking and borderline anxiety disorder. She bought me my first Bible (King James Version, naturally) and then threw a fit when I announced one Sunday that I was wearing jeans to church. (The horror!) But as much as I’ll miss her, I can rejoice in the fact that she is a Christian and that she’ll finally be going home to her Lord and Savior.

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About a week ago, we finally got around to seeing the animated movie How To Train Your Dragon. It’s a great movie, and the kids loved it. Of course, when it first came out, I couldn’t help but to joke that it looked nothing like the book, that book being Donald Miller’s To Own A Dragon.

Interestingly, though, I think there might be some thematic similarities between the two.

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The last four months have just been weird. Ever since I broke my leg in July, things have been off-kilter. Including this blog, I guess. I haven’t been as regular with my blog posts as I’d like to be, but I’m totally fine with that. I don’t need to post something every day or even every week. If you’re really that concerned about my day-to-day happenings, you can follow me on Twitter. Or marry me. Except I’m already married, so that’s probably not an option for most people.

Anyway, I didn’t really have anything in particular to blog about, so I thought I’d throw a bunch of random things into one big post and let you pick out the stuff you’re mildly interested in.

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I’m a little stressed right now.

In fact, truth be told, I’m pretty stressed most of the time. Usually about work or finances or my insanely long commute or the $2000 in medical bills I still owe from when I broke my leg and spent three days in the hospital.

Of course, I’m not alone. You’re stressed, too, admit it. Everyone is. It’s unavoidable. Stress is a by-product of modern-day life in America, and it’s largely caused by one thing: fear. Whole industries are built around this fact. Take the news media, for example. It used to be that the role of the media was to report the news. These days, though, it’s all about inciting fear in order to boost ratings. Think about it. When was the last time you heard a news anchor say, “Coming up, a new report shows no significant link between jet skiing and lung cancer.” No, instead it’s more like, “Coming up, why you’re going to die tomorrow unless you watch our news broadcast right this second. Seriously, YOU’RE GONNA DIE, PEOPLE!”

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A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about defining “manhood”. I concluded that manhood couldn’t simply be reduced to biological or emotional maturation, but that it was the result of a conscious choice to take responsibility for our lives.

Newsweek, however, has a slightly different definition.

According to the liberal scribes at Newsweek, it’s time for a “New Macho”, where men are more likely to be stay-at-home dads or have jobs traditionally dominated by women such as teachers or nurses. They point to Sweden as a role model due to their mandatory paid paternity leave laws. (Never mind that Sweden has one of the highest rates of out-of-wedlock births in the world or that Swedish men are often forced to pee sitting down in order to squash their masculinity.)

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It’s still very early into Megan’s first season of playing soccer and my first season of coaching, but already it’s been an incredible experience. Not because of the soccer, per se, but because of the league.

Megan plays in an Upward Sports league, a church-hosted Christian sports program aimed at teaching kids the fundamentals of sports while also ministering to them and teaching biblical values. Players are given positive encouragement and equal playing time, allowing them to develop their skills and have fun without an undue amount of pressure to win. They’re also given recognition for their hard work and contribution to the team, promoting the benefits of teamwork while fostering a sense of individual accomplishment.

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