It's been a long December, but there's reason to believe...

Did You Know?

Some people attend parties on New Year's Eve, while others celebrate their birthday/new years by blogging!

Every week in Newsweek, the Conventional Wisdom Watch section gives up or down arrows to people and things that have been in the news. So I thought I’d review the year 2006 in a similar fashion. Who was up? What was down? Who was somewhere in the middle? Have a happy 2007!

↑ Beans – I’ve never been too excited about a plate of beans staring up at me from the table. I have been attempting to expand my food repertoire, and have been increasing the amount of beans I’ve been eating. Over the week of Christmas, in fact, I quite enjoyed green bean casserole and refried beans.

↑ Tennessee – I remember last Thanksgiving during an ISU basketball game vs. Middle Tennessee State at the Hulman Center that I remarked to our out of town relatives from Boston that “at least Indiana is a whole lot better than Tennessee.” Well, I ended up living there about 10 months later. I have to say it isn’t quite as bad as I always imagined. So far, I have not been recruited for Klan membership or anything.

↑ Steamers – I’ve always been someone who had trouble stopping myself from getting my normal grande vanilla latte when I go out for coffee at night. When I do that, I end up being awake until 3:00am. Ordering a caramel steamer is my new solution. I’d recommend the soul-warming taste of a steamed milk with caramel syrup to anyone.

↑ Stingrays – I have more respect for these creatures. I will not be attending the stingray petting zoo at Opry Mills anytime soon.

↑ Sycamore Men’s Basketball – The Indiana State men’s basketball team could go nowhere but up after the beginning of 2006, when we lost like 11 in a row after starting last season 8-0. The good news was that last season we beat IU, Northern Iowa (while they were ranked), Southern Illinois (breaking their longest-in-the-nation home winning streak), and Bradley (Sweet 16 team). The Missouri Valley has risen to be one of the best conferences in Division 1—it’s currently ranked third behind the PAC-10 and the ACC (ahead of the Big 10, Big 12, SEC, etc). So far this season, ISU has been pretty good. They have been the only team to beat nationally ranked Butler, and while I’ve been home for Christmas, they blew out Purdue and came back from a 17-point defecit to beat Drake. Plus, the men’s games are now as fun as the women’s ones to attend.

↔ Sycamore Women’s Basketball – The women’s team finished last season 27-6, but nothing went right from about March 1 on. They never made it into the actual top-25 polls (they were usually sitting right on top of the “others receiving votes” section). They lost the tournament championship game (for the third year of the last four), and didn’t get that at-large bid in the NCAA tourney that all the experts predicted. We lost in the 2nd round of the WNIT to IU of all teams. Then, our star point guard Melanie Boeglin, who everybody predicted would be picked in the late 1st or early 2nd round of the WNBA draft didn’t get drafted. The good news is that the new team this season is off to a great start and will be better than the conference championship team from last year that got no respect.

↑ Nancy Pelosi – A woman will be 3rd in line to the presidency in a few weeks. She was villified in countless Republican campaign commercials as some evil liberal from San Francisco, yet the grand new party actually took back both houses of Congress, which I would never have thought possible a year ago.

↓ Republicans – Ha Ha!

↑ The Trinity – Many people were upset at the report on the Holy Trinity that came before the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly this summer because, affirming the traditional Father-Son-Holy Spirit language for the trinity, it suggested some other images that might be used to more fully understand the Trinity. I think being able to imagine a mystery in ways that might include more feminine (gasp!) language is good theology.

↔ Country Music – Although I’m surrounded by country music in Music City, I am not planning to become a fan anytime soon. Okay, so maybe I’ve enjoyed a little bit of bluegrass, though.

↓ Animals – I have little appreciation for them, whether they are cats that throw up all over the place or mice in my office.

↓ Television – Maybe it would be better if we had cable. Really, I’ve only watched the local news since September.

↔ Spiders – Brown recluses are a little bit freaky, but they haven’t killed any of us – yet.

↑ Small homes – I think cramming as many people as possible into small spaces will soon become all the rage.

↔ Advent Wreaths – I get excitement out of celebrating the liturgical year, but we need an edict from the pope or General Assembly or someone about the proper color scheme for the Advent season. I am all into blue—which seems to be the trend. I hear it was Mary’s favorite color (she’s always wearing it—just look at the next nativity scene you see). Others insist that purple is the best color, and some try to throw in that pink candle for gaudete Sunday.

↑ Lutherans (ELCA, of course) – I have been extremely blessed in the past year by the people at Trinity Lutheran in Terre Haute where I worked as music director for three years. They threw a real nice shindig (no, the South is not affecting my vocabulary!) for me when I left, and have been very good about keeping in touch with me since I’ve been in Nashville.

↑ Curb Your Enthusiasm – This show is hillarious. It’s on HBO, and I’ve been watching it on DVD a lot this year.

↓ Movies – I’ve realized I only enjoy movies that fall into two genres: comedies and documentaries. That’s a little strange, isn’t it.

↑ Communion – I didn’t realize how much I loved having weekly communion at church until I came to Nashville and didn’t have that anymore at Second. The Lord’s Supper has historically been the central part of weekly worship, and John Calvin thought it was good to have weekly communion, yet the majority of Presbyterians still don’t do it (though more are all the time). What’s the deal?

↓ Paychecks – I now work forty hours a week, and make less than half of what I did working 15 hours a week at the church.

↑ Smart Alecks – I’ve discovered being one of these is one of my spiritual gifts. It will either make me millions or get me killed (possibly before this year is out!).