4 posts tagged “fatherhood”
A great article, and review, of what looks to be a good read. I especially liked this quote:
Colvin's argument calls to mind the apocryphal story about an encounter in Manhattan between a tourist and famous jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. The tourist, the story goes, asked Gillespie how to get to Carnegie Hall, and Diz responded, "Practice, man, practice."
"I ought to talk to myself in the third person more often," I said out loud to myself.
Self-talk is can be taken as a sign of mental imbalance. Like the man I saw last week walking down a city street, disheveled, talking loudly to himself. You've seen people like that before, right?
But let's face it: in all of us, there is a constant conversation going on inside our heads. That's one of the proofs philosophers point to as evidence for the immaterial world, for the soul. No one can hang onto the notion that the things we "hear" inside our heads are merely neurons firing off in semi-ordered, semi-random ways. No: men have souls.
When Christians talk about being "made in the image of God," this is part of what they mean. God, as a Tri-Personal Being (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit), has perfect communication--communion, even--within Himself.
I read recently about Herschel Walker's 'dissociative identity disorder' which is the name now given to persons having a multiple personality diagnosis. I'd like to read his book.
A film I like a lot--Fight Club (Brad Pitt, Edward Norton), based on the book by Chuck Palahniuk (see my review here)-- explores the dimensions of sane, and insane, self talk. And soap. (How could I forget the soap?)
The Kingdom of God is among you," Jesus said. This means that Heaven has invaded earth, and is now controlling the media, so to speak. Our self talk is intended to be guided by God's grace as we rehearse God's promises to ourselves.
As we do, we are to remind ourselves of the character of a loving Father who, in perfect tria-logue with himself, agreed with the Son and the Spirit to give Himself to Death that we might have Life.
I have officially entered the realm of "crazed sports dad" now that my daughter, in her new school, is on the middle school tennis team.
She is 5 and 0 for her first five official matches of the tennis season. This from a girl who was convinced only last week that she "could never win a tennis match."
Plus, she is playing very well. She has great ground strokes, a bold attitude in coming to the net, a consistent service game, and a real passion to win.
Where did she get her tennis ability?" some people are asking me. I tell them, "I'm not sure." Truth is, she played at a great city-youth tennis program here in Tucson over the last 18 months and those coaches did a great job of instilling a love for the game.
Now, she owns her own love for the game, and that's pretty exciting for a dad to see. I'm proud of her accomplishment, of her ownership, and of her actual skills.
But more importantly, I'm proud of her attitude. On Thursday she played a girl who was significantly less experienced that she was, and was very kind, and very encouraging, throughout her 6-0 victory. I'd even say that they both had fun.
Thank you Lydia for reminding me about sportsmanship, about team-spirit, and about how great it is being a dad to such a wonderful girl.
I've noticed that my 10-year old son has taken to noticing cars. Not just any cars: expensive, fast, race cars and luxury cars. This does not give a dad a good feeling.
Well, that's not altogether true. There is a fatherly pride in knowing that my son loves something that I have almost no interest in. "Whose son is this, anyhow?" I want to get to know this kid! He's something else!
So, he wanted particularly to point out that this was his favorite car right now. Go for it, son. Atta boy.
