INTERVIEWS WITH BOWDEN

I plan to make this a recurring post on the Wing & Wave where I interview my son on current events and todays headlines.

Today's topic- The War in Iraq

Me: Thanks for sitting down with me Bowden, and answering a few questions about the war in Iraq.

Bowden: The war in Iraq?

Me: Yes.

Bowden: Oh! You're welcome Daddy.

Me: What are your thoughts in general about the war in Iraq?

Bowden: I don't like that show.

Me: Hmmm... I see. That's profound. What do you mean by that exactly?

Bowden: I like the police animal show.

Me: Should we stay the course as long as it takes or should we set a timetable for the withdrawal of our forces from Iraq?

Bowden: This! (Holding up a toy dinosaur and brandishing it emphatically.)

Me: By brandishing that dinosaur am I to understand that you favor staying the course in Iraq?

Bowden: No! Not dinosaurs in Iraq!

Me: Oh. So... no dinosaurs in Iraq. I think we're in agreement on that, but what about troops?

Bowden: Yeah! What a good idea!

Me: In your opinion, what challenges does Iran represent to the establishment of a democracy in Iraq?

Bowden: No... that's not a word that's a koala's name.

Me: What?

Bowden: (perturbed expression)

Me: Do you think Republican's can maintain control of congress in the next round of elections?

Bowden: Oh yeah! I think so! I remember that!

Me: Okay, this is my last question. What do you see as the biggest foreign policy issue for the U.S. and the Bush administration in the coming year?

Bowden: The peeshy-weeshy. That's the biggest. Lucy too! She's a peeshy-weeshy!

Me: What?

Bowden: Yeah she is!

Me: You're silly.

Bowden: You're a goo-goo bean!

FOLLOW UP QUESTION

During the same phone conversation with my Brother Joel, wherein he asked me the truly strange question about walking through a prison naked, he misunderstood my question about what kind of food would you choose to smell like for the rest of your life.

At first he thought I was asking if you could only smell one smell for the rest of your life and all other smells would cease to exist, which smell would you choose?

I think that is an interesting question in its own right, and so I pose it to you now. Which smell?

I say woodsmoke.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

If you had to pick three celebrities to be the groomsmen (or bridesmaids if a female) at your wedding, who would you choose?

QUERY

This moraly bankrupt question comes to you courtesy of my brother Joel who is a minister in the Wesleyan denomination. I was talking to him on the phone last night and he asked me this question.

If you were wrongly accused and convicted of exposing yourself in public, and the judge gave the unusual sentence of requiring that you must walk through a prison naked, but he left you the option of choosing a women's prison or men's prison (I know... weird judge, right?) which would you choose?

and then Joel added

"Oh yeah, and for a bonus question- what would Jesus do?"

" 10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you."

I John 3:10-13

The children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil by two things:

They practice righteousness
(played out before God and not for the purpose of pleasing men)

and

They love one another
(Not the appearance of love- goes deeper to the sincerity of our motives- God sees our actions and the deeper things that drive us)

Why does the world hate us for this? Because when we live in a manner that is pleasing to God (practicing righteousness and loving our brothers and sisters) it accuses and convicts them in the privacy of their hearts.

Able committed no offense against Cain. Able, through his righteous example, served as an uncomfortable reminder to Cain of how displeasing and selfish his offering was to God. He was faced with a choice- either bow in sweet humility to the truth and change or destroy the immediate cause of his discomfort- Able.

As Christians, we ought to live in such a way that we bring everyone within our sphere of influence to the same place, where they are prompted by our Godly example to either surrender their pride and bow to the truth or seek to destroy us.

If we aren't feeling the wrath of a guilty world, than perhaps we need to examine how we are living, for by following Christ we offer ourselves up as a lightning rod for persecution and blessing.

A STRETCH OF COMMON ROAD

"There's something about a road
That curls away from view
That lures the weary on
By promising something new
"Come just a little further.
Just another mile or two."
But when you 'round the bend
You find yourself anew
faced by a stretch of road
That curls away from view"

Jarudet the Widjiwat

* * *

"A life without Jesus is
All want and no supply-
A grasping after things
That never satisfy."

Jarudet the Widjiwat

TODAY'S QUESTION

If you could only be conscious for one month out of the year (for the rest of your life), which month would you choose?

ROMANS 12:18

"IF POSSIBLE, AS FAR AS IT DEPENDS ON YOU, LIVE AT PEACE WITH EVERYONE."

At my table in Houghton's cafeteria (...and yes it was my table) we had a rule. Do you remember that rule? No frivolous arguments. Strife, zealous argument, and ire over unimportant things have a way of ruining a good meal and leaving a bad taste in the mouth. If this conversation had begun over a plate of stale tater-tots, and clam chowder of suspect origin in that corner of the cafeteria I would have put the kaibosh on the whole regrettable thing. So shut up and lets eat!

QUESTION OF THE DAY- SERVED UP HOT AND FRESH

If you had to smell strongly like a certain kind of food for all the remaining days of your life, so that if you entered a room the smell would waft about and be evident to every nostril, which food would you choose to smell like?

ANGER!!!!!

I had better tone down the rhetoric about this being our year!

ANGER!!!!!

JEDI CONVENTION

With the departure of my brother John, and Chad & Tricia Irving (Jedi's all) as well the Irving's youngling, Isabella, the house seems depressingly empty, but my mind and heart continue to replay the images and conversations of the preceding days. It is good to belong to the body, and I enjoyed the camaraderie and fellowship that came from being with like minded people who love the Lord.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

If you could only wear one outfit for the rest of your life, what would that one outfit look like?

Any time you are wearing clothes you must be wearing this outfit.

JARUDET’S INNER MONOLOGUE UPON FIRST MEETING HIS WIFE, LARKIN.

Her form is the key-
My eyes the ignition.
Possessing she-
My heart’s ambition.
Able to transport
Or rip apart
The tenuous cord
Of life and heart,
Or, at a minimum,
Disturb for a time,
The repeating rhythm
Of a monotonous climb.
She’s a power unreleased-
A tractor idling-
An uneaten feast-
When she comes sidling
Over to me.
Should I stand still?
Or should I flee?
Give the eyes their fill?
Or look aside?
…And filled? Could they be
Ever satisfied
Of such a view as she?

Sarah and I at Oxnard

We walked one night
Just I and she.
We walked between
The city and sea.
I marvel now as I recall
We walked alone
So near the sprawl
Of a city built
Beside the sand-
With thousands of homes
So near at hand.
For though it was
Available to each,
To us was left
A deserted beach.
She said, "It comes
From living so near.
To them it's common
Though to us it's dear."
I nodded my head
And said, "I agree."
Then added "I'm glad
It's just you and me."