The Happy Holidays...

Well, the end of last year came with some trials... but all in all, it was a good holiday season for us...

In April of last year, my brother got married to Nancy...  she's pretty cool, and she and Alissa get along really well...  I like her, but she has one huge defect... she likes my brother....

I think after living with only boys for 27 years, my mom was glad to have some female presence in the household.  She now has the daughters she's always wanted (I guess me having long hair didn't cut it).  It's weird to see how feminine she really is... seeing her giddy about shopping and girly stuff is new to me... I think she's really glad to have daughters... 


These are the youngest of my cousins (minus one boy).  They are cute.. I fear that they will grow up and no longer be the cute babies I once knew them.  The smallest one (Ashley) was our flower girl...

Yep, that's right... Isaac and I whipped out our old Nintendo (that's right... the original one), and had some fun with Super Mario Bros. (the original)... Apparently I'm still good since I passed the game in less than 10 minutes (given the "warps".... remember that.. for any old school video game folk)....  

The best part of the holidays was having time off and being with the hottest girl on the planet... We had a good time with our relatives and both sides of our family.  We are blessed to have good parents and in-laws.  But now we're back to the ol' grind... here goes.... happy 2009, ya'll...

eric

Thankful for Marriage...

While walking somewhere, do you ever notice a really "fine" girl; and she's holding the hands of some goober, and you think to yourself, "HOW IN THE WORLD?!?".

Well, everytime I look in the mirror with Alissa next to me, that thought pops in my head.  Why is a girl like that with a goober like me.

Marriage is hard... because it is making me better.  She's wrestling the vices out of me and struggling to aid me in the long, arduous path towards virtue.  And I hope that I can be of assistance to my co-heir to the kingdom.  I am reminded that she does not belong to me, but rather to our mutual master.  But in this ephemeral life this side of death, I will do my best to honor, cherish, protect and love her.  And the 2 readers of this blog can hold me to that.  I am very thankful that she condescended by stooping so low and marrying a schlob like me.  God truly is gracious...  and gratuitous goodness and beauty abounds...  

eric

Thankful for music...

I really am thankful for music.  Music is very strange - somehow a string of putatively random noises can be 'formed' into something beautiful.  Of all the gratuitous excesses of goodness and pleasure that the divine has given us, I am very thankful that our heads and hearts can engage with the mathematical precision of a well-composed piece and yet have our hearts be broken by the utter beauty.  From the masterful Baroque composer Vivaldi to the down-home blues-jazz riff-ing of Scott Henderson, I'm overwhelmed by how much great music is out there.  Although much of it is not in 'pop' radio, good music is not hard to find (e.g., same with good books).

(I am currently taking a break and sitting with my guitar in order to transcribe and learn some of Scott Henderson's licks.... man he's good...)...  i love me some gitter...

eric

Family upon family....

Although no family dynamic may ever seem "normal", I guess I come from a fairly "normal" family.  I'm real luck-y (and I use that term with all its implications), and I am quite grateful.  One perk of being married has been the addition of a new family.  I know of many folks who, unfortunately, have a rough time with their in-laws.  Again, I am luck-y (though, I suppose, a more restricted notion than the first usage - since after all, some of it was in "my control", e.g. marrying Alissa, etc.).  It's been pretty easy with my in-laws, and in fact I feel as if I'm being spoiled on both fronts.  Since Turkey Day approaches, I have a lot of things to be thankful for this year, and I suppose I'll fill this blog with such things.  So first off, I'm thankful for my new family...

The "blonde" is my sister, Andrea... she's had a roller-coaster of a year (romanticism in 12 months with all the highs and lows), but her spirit has been an encouragement to me... and it is literally "impossible" to ever be bored with her (I mean that as a sincere compliment).  My mom is on the right... boy does she go over, above and beyond for her kids (even for her new kids)... I think she's flown, driven, packed, unpacked, moved so much this year for all of us that I can't believe she's still willing to come back... 

We're like an inverted twinkie....  (for those a little "slow", that's white on the outside and yellow on the inside)...   that's my brother, Brian on the right.  I'm borrowing his Chapman sweater (where he and Andrea both received their Master's this year - like I said, a roller-coaster year).  He just got a great job, and they recently moved into a new house - and best of all, they're expecting a little baby (so even more "new" family is to come).  My dad is on the left.  I can't say anything else but that I hope to grow up to be like him (he's a lot like my own dad [without the fobby-ness], so I hope to grow up to be like them both).

That's my grandpa.  My own grandpa passed away when I was one, so I've never had a grandfather during my years of being consciously aware; so it's nice that I now have a grandpa.  He's a good man; and even now, he is vigorous when it comes to ministering to others and evangelizing... I hope to be doing the same when I'm his age...  

That's my family.  I've given them a drop of yellow in their sea of white...  I like color...

Oh Preschool.... The runny noses, soiled pants and muddy shoelaces have a funny way of keeping life in perspective. So many of our daily tasks seem insignificant, yet it's in these little things that our character is tested daily. For so much of my teens and now 20's, I have sought to find meaning in my life. It is through these children that God continually reminds me that above all else, I am His child.

Moral responsibility and freedom

I've had to think about free will issues a lot recently, so reading these was pretty funny...

In an area covered by a dense layer of smog, the coast might be one's best bet for a whiff of fresh air.  Every few days, I have the privilege of escaping to such a place.  Above is the campus of UC Santa Barbara, where I get to share some time with skater-surfer "party-ers" who can't get enough of the terms "like" and "you know".  

By fortuitous (or perhaps providential) favor, we have made our way to such a fine place.  At the tip of the 'left' coast, it is not uncommon at many upper level institutions that the 'left-ism' seems most apparent.  Though it is in so-called 'ignorant yahoos' (read: Palin) that I am starting to trust, and to my great joy am starting to find even here.  If ignorant yahoos are the only ones left trying to overturn Roe-v-Wade, then I stand with the ignorant yahoos (though it is hard to label Hugh Hewitt an ignorant yahoo... and mostly because he seems to rise intellectually above many of those who scorn us yahoos).  But, victory shall not come in power, but rather it will be achieved in the self-effacing, self-abandoning act that follows from love.  The free act of submission to He who stands at the highest and to all who stand at the lowest, even to the least of these.

Many engage in academics, at worst, for power and prestige, and at best, in hopes that rigorous apologetics and argumentation may eventually overturn the culture in favor of Christendom.  Though Christendom has maintained itself within the upper echelon of academia and intellectualism, their real force is in their quiet humility.  And dwelling on the ave maria has been instrumental in my own learning of what it means to be humble.  May I, like Galadriel, pass my test and diminish into the west.

Christians must engage the culture.  And we can win.  Not by brute force or sheer strength of the will.  Nay, it shall come when we all learn to bend the knee to the Almighty and to each other... even to bend the knee to the skater-dude who cannot stop saying "like".  Love him, and I shall pass my test...  

Eric