being just a little outta tune is ok, right?

i was thinking about this the other day, if being just a little out of tune is ok. . .

we were practicing for a Sunday morning worship and then our two Christmas Eve services. i was assigned keys which basically means that i would play piano on some songs and synth on others. we were doing a lot of traditional carols so the piano would be the instrument of choice for most songs. except that we had a teenie, weenie, little problem - there were about 3 notes on the piano that were slightly out of tune. and because they were spread about evenly in the octaves, chances were good that i could conceivably play around them. so during rehearsal i made note of what notes not to play. and it was all good.

but being in the Chicagoland area with its known weather extremes, we experienced a severe cold front between that rehearsal and Sunday morning. which in turn wrecked havoc with the temperature and dryness of our church sanctuary which did bad things to not only those 3 slightly-out-of-tune notes but encouraged more of the same musical independence from a lot of the other notes. . . do you see where i am going with this?

if i were soloing on the piano, it would have been noticeable - but probably forgivable.
but playing WITH the band, it was more than noticeable, it was painful, really painful.
the other instruments being of one mind and tune only made everything i played sound gross.

i finally gave up trying to figure out what not to play and realized it was easier than i thought - forget the piano and move to the synth for everything.

while not aesthetically pleasing to Christmas carol purists, playing the synth did allow for some creativity and even some pipe organ. . .

but back to the question. . .

being a little out of tune might be ok when you are soloing. . . but it is not ok when you are part of a group.

i think it is kind of like that in life too. i can have a bad attitude, be a little selfish and a teenie, weenie judgmental in my head and not affect anybody because there is no one else in my head but me (most of the time). but when i jump into life with others, it can be painfully obvious that i am in desperate need of an attitude adjustment because i am out of tune/step with them. it may subtle enough that i didn't catch it in my solo living but community living brought it to the surface. and i need to deal with it for the benefit of others and myself.

that is why living in community can be so important for Christ followers; it helps keeps us honest and in tune.

Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron. . ."

ok, i'm not the only one

"The Internet Addiction Support Group is sponsored by the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery (www.netaddiction.com). Founded in 2004, the group is a safe place on the web for those who feel addicted to the Internet to share their thoughts, feelings, and concerns with one another, and it is a place where loved ones of online addicts, can find support, validation, and guidance. It is focused on the healing that comes through sharing of one's difficulties in the recovery process."

i can't help it. . . this just sits wrong with me. . . it's like holding a weight watcher's group in a restaurant. . .

i'm gonna look for a face-to-face group. . .

the internet - gotta have it

well, it is official. . . i'm addicted to the internet. . . thank you Al Gore!

seriously. . . we have been having cable issues at our home since we moved in this year - phone, tv, and internet. nothing major that we could FIX - just the little, annoying electronic goblins that make their presence known at worst times. . . only to disappear or at least fade when the cable guy shows up.

this week i bought a new router thinking that this would finally put this whole thing to rest.
yeah, good idea. . . just wrong.

we had a bad modem, but we were able to switch it out for a less-bad modem that the tech left with us for such as time as this. parts of yesterday and today we didn't have tv service. and i didn't really care. and we don't have phone service at the moment. and i don't really care.

what i care/d about was no internet. . . no news, no blogging, no email, no news, no idea shopping, no after Christmas shopping (i hate in-person, real time, in-the-mall shopping - give me amazon.com!) did i mention "no news"????

anyways, i admit it. . . i need my internet more than my phone or my tv. . . and i can't believe i just wrote that.

i promise - i will go look for internet addiction self-help groups in my area as soon as i finish this post. . .

colder than ???

it is a little on the cold side here in the suburbs of Chicago. i think we have moved up to -3, with a windchill of -19.

i am not complaining. i am just wondering where in the world global warming is when you need him. . .

Folger's coffee commercial

loved the Folger's commercials with Mrs. Olson. . . as a kid, i was always expecting her to show up at our house. . .
this commercial has Seventh Heaven's Rev. Camden before he was Rev. Camden.

Christmas consumer complaints

i am working part-time for a toy distributor - an interesting choice of work to begin during the Christmas season. nothing like the convergence of new employment stupidity factor and the high pressure of retail supply and demand. . . and on-time delivery.

it's not brain surgery but the burden of making sure what the customer ordered is what the customer gets. . . well, it is a heavy one - especially the first two weeks of December. no one in the company wants to know they were responsible for disappointing a child on Christmas morning.

although we do our best to keep mistakes to a minimum, we are only human, and have been known to err on occasion. this has led me to wonder about the error factors of elves and Santa's employment of said non-humans. . . but i digress.

i've said all of that to say this. . . "you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

if you need to return a gift because it is not what you ordered -
remember, "you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

if you need to return a gift because it is what you ordered but it was not portrayed clearly enough in the picture or description- so in that respect it is not what you thought you ordered - remember, "you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

if you need to return a gift because it came broken, crushed, or missing pieces -
remember, "you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

just in case anyone is unclear about the whole flies, honey, and vinegar thing. . .

"You can win people more easily to your side with gentle persuasion and flattery than hostile confrontation."
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition 2002

i'm not sure about the flattery part. . . but it probably can't hurt.

keeping Christ in Christmas????

when my kids were little, i was a Christmas nazi. keeping Christ in Christmas was my soapbox!!!
we had enough of Commercial Christmas. . . we needed Christian Christmas!

yeah, about that. . .

i think that if we just tried to daily live "Christ in me", the whole keeping "Christ in Christmas" thing just might take care of itself.