Welcome to the door

Some days it doesn’t pay to chew through the straps.

What should have been an hour’s worth of work at a house a couple of miles from us took three. I had purchased nails for my pneumatic finish nailer because I knew I was going to need them. Alas, the 18-gauge wouldn’t work in my gun. So, off to Lowe’s to get 16-gauge nails. Who knew they came in angled as well as straight racks? Off to Lowe’s again. But all’s well that ends well. The job is done and she’s very pleased with the results.

From there into town to finish the shelving install I started earlier this week. Stopped by Home Depot on the way home to pick up the garbage disposal I’ll install tomorrow.

On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in the German town of Wittenberg, where he was teaching at the university. Two noteworthy things about that event. First, these theses were, by definition, propositions, proposals, statements meant to engender discussion. They were Luther’s strong convictions, things he felt fervently about. But he realized those 95 items warranted discussion. He figured if others interacted with his theses they would come to agree with him, but that the best way for that to happen was to publish them and begin that dialog. Which leads us to the second thing worth noting about that event. In 1517 the church door functioned as a kind of community bulletin board. If you had something you wanted people to see, you tacked it to the church doors. And that’s exactly why Luther put his 95 theses there, right next to the ’72 Pinto hatchback For Sale sign.

If Luther nailed his theses to the door of a church today it wouldn’t go so well. He’d have trouble getting a nail through the steel door, and the pages would blow off long before anybody noticed them. Discussion? Wouldn’t happen.

I won’t presume to speculate on what Martin would do if he were alive now (WWMD?). But I do think there’s a contemporary parallel – the blog. IMHO, the blog is a 21^st century church door, a place for posting personal convictions, topics warranting discussion, ideas for consideration. Yes, blogs serve other purposes, like a kind of public diary (see paragraph 2, above). But in their purest form blogs are a place for throwing out ideas for your consideration. The blogger may feel strongly about the ideas he puts forth, and may hope that the post will lead others to share his convictions. But primarily it’s a place for sparking interaction with those convictions.

So once more, folks: Do NOT take any of this too seriously! Whether it’s immigration issues, church issues, Diet Coke or HGH in MLB, the point is for you to think. I don’t care if you agree with me! Just think. OK? Please?

I heard part of an interview on NPR today with a lady who wrote a book about traveling in Italy, India, and some other places I didn’t catch. At one point she suggested that the personality of a city could be captured in a single word. OK, maybe simplistic, but interesting. She said that Rome is best described by the word “sex”. New York gets “achieve” and L.A. gets “succeed.” (Note the difference.) That got me to thinking about cities in which we’ve lived. I don’t think we’ve been in Phoenix long enough for me to tag. At this point I might say “climb” but I’m not sure. Grand Rapids? Given the current state of the Michigan economy, maybe “endure” fits. But there’s also a strong sense of “community.”

An interesting exercise. What word would you choose for your city? Leave a comment! I’d be interested in your response.

We’re sneaking up on Christmas. And this year we even have a tree in the house. Granted, it’s made of petroleum-based materials and is measured in inches not feet, but hey, it’s a tree. Yet even with the tree, I’m not feelin’ the Christmas spirit. OK, I know some of you are laughing at this point, but hear me out. After 17 years in Michigan it’s impossible not to associate cold and snow with December 25^th. Sun and 65 degrees? Driving around with the window down? Even a-rum-pa-pa-pum can’t overcome that. So while I’m not a fan of the commercialization and kitsch of the season, even I find something almost romantic in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

And as much as I hate to admit it, I think miserably cold weather is almost essential to that warmth.