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There Are Absolutely No Absolutes!

Cleaning / Organizing in my office today, and came across a spiral binder of poetry written when I was a young man… they are all hand written, so I am going to post some of them here to preserve them and to provide for feedback… There Are Absolutely No Absolutes! “There are no absolutes,” you say, But are you absolutely sure? For once you say that there are none, There’s one, where none there were! And when you press to convince, That there really should be none, The very fact that you say “should” Brings out another one. Then you’re quick to point out, That my logic is not right, But if logic’s based on nothing, then On what do you stand to fight? And what about the times I hear You say you were not treated fair, On what grounds do you call them wrong, With no standard to compare? If you say I’m wrong, I’m right! And you lose, once you say you win! For once you set up one as right, Your argument caves in. So if there are no absolutes, And always a counter view, Then I must add of your argument, That also must be…

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My Canadian Buddy, Tyler

Here is a picture of my Canadian buddy, Tyler, doing what he loves best: READING! I have never met Tyler in person (yet!) but I hope to some day! His parents are missionaries in a remote part of northern Canada, where kids church looks like this: (Tyler in the yellow shirt) I got to know Tyler via his mom when I learned that he is a big fan of Toyboxtales.com, my novel (Order of the Ancient), and my blog. In fact, I am blogging about him today in order to encourage him with his new blog, since I just discovered tonight that he credited me as his “inspiration” to begin his blogging career: Maybe some of the zillions who come here can visit his blog and leave a comment to encourage him! Here is Tyler, at a local landmark–the moose head at the gas station, with the autographed copy of my novel I sent him after I learned that he only had the downloads and needed to clear up some harddrive space and was sad to lose it. (The book was released originally online a chapter a week, which is when Tyler read it) Here is Tyler in trouble with…

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Luke Learns to Drive

One of the joys of fatherhood is teaching your son to drive. Well, the time has come for Luke to take this next important step in his human (manly) development… It started out as a quick trip to the dollar store to pick up my sister who’s car had broken down. Since it was a RARE warm afternoon, and a very short ride, I thought I’d let Luke have his first ride with the top down! (note the shades for wind, and the blanket for warmth!) Plus, mommy was out with a friend, so no need to worry about whether mom approved. (!) BUSTED! Just as I got to the end of the street, mom and her friend turned onto the street, and I was caught red-car-ed, er, I mean, red-handed! So mom jumped out of one car, and into mine to join us for the short ride! Best view in the world… (note Darth on the dash pointing which way to go!) Once we got to our destination, we had to wait for the toe truck, er, tow truck to arrive, so we had some time to kill. After too long in the dollar store asking, “How much is…

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9th Annual Success – I Kid U Not!

Hard to believe this was the 9th annual Kidology University here in Chicago. (14th Kid U if you count the ones in other states!) My new church played host and we had a great turn out, many of the rooms were standing room only, so next year we will be looking for an even larger facility. (leads anyone?) I enjoyed a break this year. No workshops. No EmCeeing, just taking pictures and visiting with our speakers and guests, it was a welcome change of pace for me. Especially walking around with my little boy. I was more daddy and less “Kidologist”… a refreshing change for me. Bill Allison was one of our many excellent speakers – one of the hallmarks of Kidology is that I am extremely picky about who speaks at a Kidology conference. All of our speakers embody our mission, Equipping and Encouraging. (but doing it while being Entertaining is ok too!) Master Ron, who as of yesterday is officially now “Pastor Ron” had the place cracking up with his balloon version of Samson and Deliah! And as our VIP, we had none other than Rob Biagi back! He is a V.I.P. to K.I.D.O.L.O.G.Y.! (not as catchy as…

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Friends Are the Ones Around When it Rains

Friends Are the Ones Around When it Rains In high school we got sick of the M. Smith song, “Friends are friends forever.” Real life teaches you it isn’t true. Those you thought were friends for years can forget you and even turn on you if you don’t live up to their expectations. And it hurts. I used to use the teaching tool: A true friend C.A.R.E.S. when teaching kids: C = challenges you to be a better person A = accepts you just the way you are, they don’t reject you when you mess up R = respects you, they don’t do things to hurt or damage you, they don’t ‘get even’ E = encourages you – they are there when you need them most S = sticks with you, no matter what A genuine friend who was in town this week said something that I wanted to post here: “A friend is someone who runs in when everyone else is running out.” I just wanted to say thank you to those who have been a genuine friend to me in the past several months… there have been many, and often not the ones I would have expected. God…

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