5,000 Years From Now

What will matter a few hundred years from now? It’s very likely many things will. The formation of the United States of America some 200 years ago still matters. We all still know it, read about it, live it.

But will it matter 200 years from today? Probably. Will it matter a thousand years from today? Not so sure.

Will it matter then if I work extra hard in the coming weeks to land a big consulting contract that will pay another 5 or 10 grand a month? Not thinking it will.

I’ve been preoccupied lately thinking about this, and stretching that number to 5,000 years.

I’m a big Beatles fan. Well, actually, borderline fanatic. The Beatles broke on to the international scene 44 years ago. They reached their zenith in popularity just over 40 years ago. 2 of the 4 are dead now, one of the remaining cant sell more than a few hundred thousand CDs on a new release, and the other couldn’t sell any if the remaining years of life counted on it.

But, still, their music is still so relevant today. This past fall an amazing film was released called “Across the Universe” using Beatles music as not only the soundtrack, but the story line. It reconnected a new generation to this decades old music. Even my 4 young kids appreciate the Beatles and often have one of their songs on their lips. But a thousand years from now? Five thousand years?

So much of my day is spent on the things that won’t matter 5,000 years from now, much less 100 years.

Tell me about your great-great grandfather. What was he like? What did he spend his time doing? What did he do for a living? What kind of car (or horse buggy) did he drive? What were his hobbies? His interests? How did he do in school?

Doesn’t matter. You probably don’t even know. I don’t…sadly, I don’t even know mine’s name.

But I can tell you this- how he loved (or didn’t love) his wife, and his kids, and his neighbors probably matters to this day. And could continue to matter throughout eternity.

How did his kids learn to love from him? How did they learn to think about and treat other people? What legacy did they leave because of him? Or their great-great grandmother for that matter. Did your great-great grandfather’s daughter learn that she is invaluable? That her soul and mind and body are priceless? That no matter what she did or didn’t do she couldn’t make her father, or God, love her any more or any less?

If so, she lived her life in a way that mattered too. And impacted her sons and daughters, a flowing underground river of life that is buried beneath the surface of our consciousness, prompting and leading us to live as we were meant to- image bearers of a loving God.

Sometimes the underground river is poison. It is bitter with hate and rejection, with unspoken acts of betrayal and murder of the heart. And those things too can matter for eternity, spreading through generations and slowly poisoning all who drink or touch the water.

So… what will I do today that will matter? I will try, though I fail constantly, to remember that how I love those around me could matter for eternity, while the proposal I need to get to a client by the end of the day wont matter next year.

Dry Skin, Fru Fru Lotion and the Smell of Fish

I’ve written before about how children’s minds work in mysterious and often funny ways. They can’t help putting two and two together and getting seventeen. Everything they see, hear and experience is put through their little filter that is only a few years old.

Logic is but a glimmering part of their distant future. The right now can only be viewed in the context of the last few months of their lives.

And for our little six year old R, it was perfectly logical that she inform me that what appeared to be, was not.

We were headed out for the day- on our way to see the High School Musical, umm, Musical, at the Tennessee Performing Arts center. As if Disney hadn’t sucked enough money out of our pockets through DirecTV subscription fees, trips to DisneyWorld and DisneyLand, countless plastic figurines, Cinderella and Snow White dresses, and so, so, much more, they of have to put on Broadway style performances of movies we have already seen a million times. And we gleefully plop down $300 or more for all six of us to go see a story we already know, and songs we know by heart, with no doubt whatsoever how it will end.

And so we went to see Troy and Gabriella fall in love. For the thousandth time.

The day was fairly cold- and a few of us were fighting off coughs and runny noses. I had noticed the skin on my hands had got rough and sore in the last couple of days and so as we drove I asked if anyone had any lotion. This is rather uncharacteristic of me. I simply do not use lotion. I don’t use hair products. I don’t use loofas or any other tools of the trade used by the common metrosexual. But this was different. The pain and itching were beyond my ability to ignore and so I had to apply some sort of moisturizing lotion to ease the pain.

Michelle handed me her lotion, warning me it smelled pretty girly. Well…that was an absolute understatement. I looked at the bottle and commented that it looked like it would probably smell sickeningly sweet and I didn’t feel like having to smell that on my hands for the next several hours. I commented on how the image on the bottle looked like it would reek and opened it up getting a wave of stink as if I’d shoved a dozen flowers up my nose. I asked if anyone else had any lotion.

Little R spoke up- “I do daddy. It’s in my purse.” She dug around and pulled out the lotion. She handed it to me as I drove, arm stuck backwards toward her seat with my hand open. She plopped it in my hand and then assured me that I would like the lotion despite the way the tube looked. I looked at the cute tube of hand lotion and noticed the penguin on the front.

She told me, serious as a heart attack, “Don’t worry daddy, it doesn’t smell like penguin.”

Three

Win Lose Tie
Yes No Maybe
Food Drink Air
Cold Hot Tepid
Earth Sea Sky
Run Walk Stand
Birth Life Death
Earth Moon Sky
Heart Mind Body
Happy Sad Angry
Heaven Hell Earth
Day Night Twilight
Sight Sound Touch
Small Medium Large
Right Left Straight
Morning Noon Night
Pain Pleasure Numb
Son Husband Father
Before During After
Past Present Future
Poor Rich Middleclass
Flying Floating Sinking
Daughter Wife Mother
Love Hate Indifference
Angels Demons Humans
Mountains Valleys Plains
Forward Backward Stalled
FATHER SON HOLYSPIRIT

That Time Of Year Again

Softball is back. This morning K, L and I showed up to help out with Girls Softball Association of Franklin's registration day.

The morning started off at 9AM with moving tables and folding brochures in preperation for the arriving moms, dads and girls.

This year, again, I will have all four of my girls playing and me playing the role of assistant coach on four teams.

I am legend. Not in the Will Smith sense- only in that the entire league of 33 teams, 70 coaches, 400 girls and some 20 or so umpires all await the practice and game schedule after the association president custom designs it around me.

He kindly and graciously builds the schedule making sure that I don't have overlapping practices and games, and that enough time is built in so I can get from field to field for each game.

Practices start in early March, and soon I will be out again on the softball fields for 8 practices and then 8 games a week into early June.

Singing Girls

Every once in awhile I find a female vocalist that I really dig. Usually its because they sing in a scale that I am able to meagerly follow along with when no one is around to hear.

There is a new breakout artist named Sara Barilles that I’m particularly digging. Her song “Love Song” is not only a lyrically beautiful, but frighteningly catchy.

Kind of reminds me of early Michelle Branch. You can check it out on VH1.com.

I don’t know how much depth there is to Sara behind the music…perhaps plenty...but one female vocalist I have been watching for some time I know has depth beyond measure.

I met Vicky Beeching several years ago when she was first signed to EMI. We invited her to perform a cozy acoustic set for the sales and marketing team retreat.

The plan was to have a day of hiking and outdoor sports, picnic lunch and music. While it was fun, the day was horribly hot and sweat was rolling down the faces of everyone around. Vicky showed up picture perfect and managed, despite the unbearable heat, outside under a gondola in the woods with no breeze, to play beautiful music and deliver a thought provoking message.

While what she says has great value and captures the attention of the listener on its own merit, her adorable Brit accent doesn’t hurt either.

I recently discovered she has a blog- some great reading, interesting thoughts and questions, and a few funny pics. Check it out:

http://vickybeeching.typepad.com/

You can also check out her music on her MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/vickybeechingmusic