Also frustrating are these broad strokes:

Contemporary worship removes Scripture and the centrality of Christ from the service.

There are plenty of contemporary worship songs built on verses of Scripture, extolling the names of Jesus and worshiping Him as the heavenly hosts did in the Book of the Revelations of John.  Pastors and music directors lean different directions on the type of worship songs, whether to stay along lines of Scripture or open it up to the feel-good chants.  Folks who want to keep it stately and reverent are OK, but please have some grace for those who like to spice it up a little.  Just a little.

I suppose it doesn't help when some of the first songs we teach our children start out with "I":  I got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart ...

where?

I was expecting to see more of a traditional vs. praise/CCM schism here, but so far it has been fairly tame.  I was raised in the Catholic church with the grand church organ sounding out hymns, been to other mainline churches as an adult, but now find myself in a Pentecostal place.  With all of that "rampant emotionalism" ;) we have to have the pumped-up praise music.

I enjoy it though sometimes repeating the same verse over and over can get frustrating.  Another aspect that turns me off are the songs that focus on "I" rather than the Lord:  how I feel, what I am going to do, I I I .  I call those Mexican hymns.

When a song stirs my soul the tears will flow.  That seems to happen when we have the fortune to play an older hymn.  No matter what is chosen, our singing/music is our praise offering to the Lord, our act of worship.  Going to church for other reasons is vanity.

Ditto the thanks for posting this.  My brother is a Nurse Anesthetist and I just get a glimmer of the stress he goes through.  He tells me they don't pay him to get patients unconscious but rather to revive them.  He makes great money but he's seriously considering dropping out due to the stress.

If the jolly jokers are your superiors then you'll have to file this episode under "Unpleasant Memories" and move on.  Beyond that, you sound like you could use a session with an expert Heart Healer.  His office is always open when you are ready to give Him your burden.

We don't get many visitors to the TaterBin, but whenever someone does visit who does not like cats, our cat will come out and try to rub up against their leg.  They're funny that way.

For the mom of the couple who is expecting grandchildren, she would be misguided to think that a grandbaby is somehow a payment for all the time and effort of raising the baby's parent.  It all comes down to love.  I wanted to have a miniature version of my wife when we were first attempting procreation, a little girl with a big smile similar to the one I saw of a black-and-white picture of my wife when she was two.

The mom probably wants another chance at holding the (somewhat similar) baby she held decades ago and fall in love all over again.  Since my children are adopted I will not necessarily get the "similar" baby, but I dearly welcome the chance to fall in love again.  Father Time is working against me, though.

For the currently childless couple, do they love each other enough to want "Mini-me's" scurrying underfoot?

Looking at it logically, having children is irrational as there is no guarantee of success:  how they turn out, if they will support you in your old age, even if they will love you back.

My wife and I are the infertile couple, but both sides had younger siblings with children so we did not get the "gimme grandbabies" pressure.  After ten years we decided to adopt, and now have three faces to account for.  Under this train-wreck of Obamanomics and gov't. borrowing diluting my paycheck, I have been struggling trying to figure out how we're going to make it without defaulting.

Through it all, I do not regret one single day of bringing these youngsters into my family.  My younger brother and his wife have decided to stay childless, and that's OK.  My advice is if you can have children then you should as it can be the journey of a lifetime.

Even after living with me for over six years, I'm still waiting for one of my youngsters to tell me that he loves me.  I'll keep telling him that I love him, and have faith he feels the same unspoken way.

Dennis Brown - Big Ships

Strangely enough, I used to pop in an old cassette of The Who's "Quadrophenia" when I head for the beach, but now I can grab it on my phone (Zune).  Mrs. O'Chez is kind enough to let it go, though she's more of a CCM fan.  I think it's the underlying theme/chord that Townsend uses for many of the songs sounding like surf, particularly "Love Reign O'er Me".

In my sea and sand, nothing ever goes as planned ...

Thanks for the post.  It would be helpful if you spent a little more time proofreading, as it seemed to be something you just typed out and posted without reviewing.  You made good points and they would be even more effective with a little clean-up.  Love you brother - just trying to help.

As Brent pointed out, we have let government take control.  We do need government in a limited fashion, but unfortunately there are those who see a need, see the feds sitting on billions of dollars and think that government money/programs can fix the ills.  The church should be at the forefront of helping others, as Jesus modeled for us.

The church/community has allowed this responsibility to slip through their fingers.  I don't know what it will take short of Armageddon to restore the balance.

Hmm, no home-schoolers piping in yet?  I have somewhat the opposite situation on my hands.  My two home-schooled sons may have a hazy idea on how good they have it, not being subjected to public schools as well as the "relaxed" time schedule they're on, yet I'm tempted to serve them some cheese after hearing their whining on how difficult they have it.

Otherwise, I can only remember one "bad" teacher in HS (Honors English).  After giving an assignment and having us work at our desks, she would invariably start digging for treasure in her nose.  She was also one of those failed Theater wanna-be's, so we'd get the occasional dramatics from her.

I also had the bad foreign TA experience in college.  In a sophomore Physics class, the TA was from India, all of 4'6".  It was very difficult to understand her due to her accent as well as quiet voice.  After about a month or so the professor noticed over half the class was failing.  She was replaced by a redheaded guy who you could hear.

The judges seemed to be a little more helpful this season than in the past.  Without Simon you won't get the cutting truth but the ones besides Mariah this season seemed to not hold back.  You have to take the teenagers voting in stride.  The bewildering choices can be interesting, but it ends up being a popularity contest with the producers pulling an occasional string.

The producers walk a fine line between presenting compelling stories and exploiting the simple/needy.  I suppose as long as nobody is forced to try out, then they got what they paid for.  There are a whole bunch of losing lottery tickets torn up every day, trashed along with the dream of winning.

You may already know this if you're a Trek fan, but they stream all of the Star Trek TV series.  I'm working through "Enterprise" (near end of season 2) as I did not catch it when it originally aired, and it is entertaining.

I also wish they had more of the "classic" movies for streaming - don't know why they feel the need to hold back some of the oldies but goodies.  I like to check on instantwatcher.com to see what's popular or just released, as well as titles Netflix is getting ready to remove from the streaming list.

Even if some of the MSM cries "WOLF" (and not Blitzer) have they lost their credibility?  It would be opposite of the boy crying wolf story:  the boy who is supposed to stand watch never hollers when a wolf comes to destroy, so when one rises up (again) and the boy cries out nobody believes him.

I also wonder if there is a resistance for impeachment as the alternative is plugs Biden.  He probably has enough "get out of jail free" cards from his Senate days that it would be difficult to pin anything on him besides his usual incompetence.  President Biden should be the title of a horror movie.

More than the IRS and DoJ mess, the Benghazi bobble should be the one that can be pinned on Obama.  We all wanted Romney and Ryan to skewer Obama on it during the debates, but Romney didn't want to pin it on Obama.  I suppose it would come out sounding like "Liar liar pants on fire", yet that's what it was.

As a "dad" some of the Disney movie songs squeeze my heart.  They remind me of a particular time when you could hold a precious heartbeat next to yours, and if you were lucky they would take their time before trying to squirm away.

(From Tarzan) "You'll Be In My Heart":  Anyone who has adopted and heard this song can identify with it.  Parents of newborns holding their gift from God will feel the same way too.

(From Princess and the Frog) "My Belle Evangeline":  My baby girl lights up the sky when she smiles my way.  I hope she'll let me dance with her to this song on her wedding day, though I'll be slipping on my tears.

"Beauty and the Beast":  All of my children are so beautiful, I don't know how a beast like me could be so blessed.

Valiuth

Did any one else find his comments that the only reason a pretty white girl would run to a black man is because she was either homeless or in trouble a bit off putting?

I think you have to look at it from his shoes.  He seems friendly enough with everybody, eating ribs with neighbors and hanging out on the porch, but he is not accustomed to having young white girls running into his arms.  He's probably never seen it happen with his friends either.

It was out of character - that's the point he was somewhat eloquently making.  Thank God he stepped in and did the right thing.  How many other folks would have turned away, been afraid or just not want to get involved?

Your mention of the "brogue" brought to mind that silly seed salesman on the TV for Skotts.  Does he have magical insight to things that are green?  Does it have to do with maintaining golf courses??  Do it!

When I first met my Southern Belle (now Mrs. O'Chez) she had a slight but noticeable drawl.  It seems to have faded over time, though I don't know if it was being exposed to my Yankee/Chicago ways or the five years we did not live in NC.  It was funny to see the looks on people faces when she talked to them, when we were up north, and they would say "You're not from around here, are you?"  Her drawl would "amplify" if she talked around other drawlers.

On occasion our local news will highlight the plight of a poor restaurant owner who will have the temerity to post a sign that required food orders to be made in English only.   Shocking.

I hereby offer my services as mascot if the tater theme sweeps the NFL team from DC (or are they in Maryland now?).  Can you imagine the uptick in Mr. Potato Head sales, especially those themed in mustard yellow and dried-blood red (scab) colors?

No matter what they're called they'll get mashed on Oct. 20th when the Bears open up a can of whup@** on 'em.  :0

I like the ones mentioned, but it's interesting no Pixar movies have been mentioned.  My favorite scene where there was nothing to quote was when the life of Carl and Ellie was pictured (no dialogue) after Ellie told  Carl:  You don't talk much... I like you!  It was amazing how much they could communicate, and the emotions evoked, without dialogue.

Oh, there is this later:

Alpha:  Now, you must wear the cone of shame.

Dug:  [hangs head] I do not like the cone of shame.

One more - Dug:  Squirrel!