On Friends and Music and Books and Muppets

Forgive me, I didn't have a lot of time to put any thoughts down. You see, we're on vacation and are either playing or relaxing.
Em and I were in Pennsylvania visiting friends we met during our tour of duty in New Jersey. A lot of good things happened to us during that time in Jersey and the people we met were at the top of that list. It is wonderful that after 4 years of not seeing these fine folks that we can just pick up the slack in the line and move on like there was no time at all.
Greg Milinovich is a pastor at Catawissa Ave UMC in Sunbbury Pennsylvania. This is Greg's first "charge" as it is called. He has been an associate for 10 years. I have heard him speak a number of times. It is always sort of bazaar to hear a pastor preach when you know them off-duty because their pastor persona is a little different from who they are in the comfort of your relationship. Sometimes I have found this makes the message a little harder to take due to this disconnect between how we know this person and how they are on the pulpit.
This is not so with Greg. He does not have a pulpit persona. He is easy and breezy both in public and in his living room. His sermons are refined and personal and engaging just like he is. His sermons don't come across as being read or given, instead he shares and imparts his thoughts. His congregation is allowed to listen and appreciate and think critically about the scripture on which he is preaching. I have heard a lot of good speakers in my life. I count Greg among them. I envy that his chosen path allows him to use so many of his strengths and challenges him in a way he loves.
His wife Shannon is the picture of grace under pressure. She runs the tidy house with love and expediency. She never appears flustered when being a mom to their two wonderful and active boys.
My wife asked at one point "Shannon, how do you stay so thin?"
To which I replied, "Have you SEEN her running around here after the kids?!"
It was better than nice, or wonderful to sit and talk with Shannon and Greg. They are both smart and incite-full, open-minded and entertaining of a wide variety of points of view.
In my world, I spend a great deal of time turning simple phrases and trying to get a simple direction across to people and it requires a basic level of communication. But we sure let it fly over this too-short trip.
Thank you, Greg and Shannon for this wonderful trip. I know it is never as relaxing having guests as being one. Emily and I relish the opportunity to return the favor soon. No excuse needed to come visit us... we didn't have one to visit you!

On Books

I just finished reading "The Silence of the Lambs". While I have seen the move a dozen or more times, I never read the book. I thought I would be disappointed as the first quarter is lock step more-or-less with the movie, dialogue and all.
But as with most books, the author can impart so much more emotion and (forgive me), flesh to a character. I find myself being fascinated by the small back stories and subplots that inevitably get cut from the movie to keep it going.
For instance, near the end of the movie at the big climax showdown between hero and villain, I never really understood how Clarice Starling stumbles on Buffalo Bill's workshop. It either was not well explained in the very brief dialogue in the wrap-up scene, or theatrical audiences simply don't bother themselves with minutia. Likely, it is a little (or a lot) of both.
Anyway, the film is excellent, the book is excellent. There is more and different tension in the book because we know the characters better and therefore feel more for them. The ending is not so perfectly delicious (sorry again), leaving the reader in awe and terror of Dr. Hannibal Lector.
My one issue to Mr. Harris, the author... It is a Stryker Saw, not a Strycker Saw. I know this because they are my biggest client and I spend a lot of time there while they are being made.

On Music

I write this listening to Tapestry by Carole King on LP. I picked up this gem, widely considered to be among the top 100 albums of all time, for two bucks at a flee market in Lewisburg, Pa. Lewisburg is the home of Bucknel University and a cute little town.
This album, like Paul Simon's Graceland must be listened to on Vinyl. There is just something that lends itself to the color and depth of the format.
Much has been written about this tour de force over the years by people far more qualified than I, so I will resist the temptation to pile on as it were.
Suffice it to say, it was the best two bucks I have spent in a long while. I almost can't wait for the next rainy fall day... This will be the on the turntable for sure, to ease my mind as we head into the dark, cold months of the year.

On Movies

In PA, we also saw "The Muppet Movie" on the big screen at one of those classic revival theaters just off the campus of Bucknel.
We own these movies and watch them at home far more often than a couple in their 30's with no children should. I could lie and say we drag them out reluctantly when Skylar comes to visit, but then you may ask why we own all the movies on VHS and DVD.
Greg and I at each end of our row singing all the songs and laughing in anticipation of the jokes we remember and laughing even bigger at the jokes we never saw or had long forgotten. The kids even liked it which is promising in this era of 3D everything and special effects and digital rendering, etc.
Come to think of it, the Muppets were the first 3D animation. They were real to us because the environment in which they interacted WAS our world. There was a certain realism to them because they spoke with real people and rode bikes and drove cars, just like us.
Perhaps that is a reason for the tremendous staying power of these little puppets... We relate to them because they don't exist in some foreign world. We don't just suspend our disbelief when we see a frog and a pig having a romance... we hope, we wish, one day we could see that.