Have you noticed over the past few years that car dealers have coined a new phrase for used cars? They are no longer “used,” they are “pre-owned.” I’m guessing that they think it sounds better, like they are trying to distance themselves from the pejorative term “used.”

Think about the term for a second, pre-owned…
Like Inigo Montoya tells Vizzini in The Princess Bride when he keeps using the word inconceivable, “you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.”

If a car is “pre-owned” then that means it is before it has an owner. In other words, it is new. A pre-owned car is a new car. The exact opposite of what they are trying to use the term to mean. What they mean is a “previously owned” car. But people really don’t think about these kinds of things and just go along with it, but in the process we are dumbing down our society.

I rented Idiocracy recently. (warning: its got quite a bit of bad language in it, most of it is there to prove a point though) The idea behind the movie is that stupid people have taken over the world 500 years in the future. Its funny but a little scary because a lot of what goes on in the movie is just an exaggeration of today’s society. Sadly, some of the things that are portrayed in the movie don’t seem all that far fetched. I can see our society moving in that direction as we continue to cater to the “lowest common denominator.” People winning lawsuits because their coffee was too hot, stupid “don’t try this at home” disclaimers on every commercial we see, teachers not telling kids they have the wrong answer because it might hurt their self esteem, etc…
Its all ignoring reality to make ourselves feel better.

So next time you are looking for a new car, ask the dealer to show you their selection of pre-owned cars.

If you didn’t read my previous post, we are back in Little Rock and staying in our empty house. But, we did leave behind a TV and rabbit ears so we can watch TV if we want.

This morning I was walking through our family room and I over heard Luke say to himself, “yes! It got through!” He was watching the weather on the local news. I asked him what got through. He said, “its going to be warm and sunny on Wednesday. I prayed and asked God to make it sunny on Wednesday.”

Luke has always seemed to have a strong faith for an almost 7 year old little boy. He can be our biggest trouble maker but he comes out with some pretty profound comments.

We’ve been back in Little Rock since Saturday evening. The kids are on Spring Break so we decided to visit our “Summer home.”

We’ve been staying in our empty house, doing some painting and minor repairs and visiting friends. Its been really strange being back, it feels different, not like home.

Anyway, we hope the new paint and repairs helps our house sell soon. We are not sure how much longer our renting situation back in Indiana is going to last. We need this house to sell soon.

Do you ever stop and look at the moon? …
I mean, really stop and look at it. Studied the details you can see with the naked eye. Studied the edge of the shadow on a non-full moon.
I did yesterday morning as I got out of the car in the parking lot at work. (Thanks to daylight savings time, its dark when I get to work.) I caught a glimpse of the moon and just stood in awe looking at it. It looked almost just like the picture up above.

As I stood there, I tried to comprehend the distance I was looking across. However many hundreds of thousands of miles that is, huge to me but small compared to the vastness of our solar system, which is an almost immeasurable fraction of the size of our galaxy which is just an average sized galaxy out of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. Which was created by a boundless God. That all went through my head as I stood there studying… and I don’t even smoke pot.

Then I started remembering looking at the moon when I was about 8 years old. At the time I thought for sure that I was going to be an astronaut when I grew up. I didn’t even question it. I looked at the moon imagining what it would be like to walk on it one day, because one day I would walk on it. I remember what it was like looking at something with that intense awe and wonder, even anticipation. I remember it but I can’t manufacture it again. I now know I will never be an astronaut and will never walk on the moon. It would be so cool to be able to forget those facts and look at the moon in that way again…

I’m a big dork.

Last Sunday night the church we are attending had an all music worship service with these young guys playing amped up versions of standard praise and worship songs. The guitarist played a solo on one of the songs and put his leg up on the monitor all cool like.

The church asked me to play guitar this next Sunday. During practice this week, I thought it would be funny to imitate that guy. Not to be cool but to sort of mock it in a friendly kind of way (the guy was running the sound for practice.) Only when I did it, it was on the monitor on the other end of the stage. The angled, top heavy monitor. The monitor not designed to have a foot placed on top of it. As I did, it rolled backwards… and so did I. Landed flat on my back, guitar still in hand. A loud gasp went up from the other band members and singers. I think I even heard an “oh my God! Is he ok?”
I got back up and the practice continued on but I felt pretty stupid.

Got home and told Karen. She got a pretty big kick out of it.