Asleep in a park...

It was sunset on Granville Island and he/she was still sleeping.

My first thought was that it was a nice place to sleep.

(my second thought was that I need a longer lens)

At the foot of a park with children playing and owners and dogs running and panting and the sun sparkling off a beautiful fountain and a young asian boy practicing his saxophone.

I thought, 'Well, if you're going to be homeless, this is a pretty nice spot to pick.'

And then I realized that this is his home.

He's not homeless.

He's at home in the park.

And a deep sense of the transitory nature of life washed over me as I stood there.  Who's really to say that he's more homeless than me?  My  house is really just a cobbled together shelter of sticks and plaster and brick.  Yes, I technically 'own' it, but with the disaster looming to the south of us, who's to say who really owns my house.  If the bank 'called' my mortgage today, I'd be forced to move out.

(and thinking that thought makes me think of buying some kind of firearm so I could at least fight off the savings and loan guys for a time...)

Our security is an illusion.

And seeing all the homeless people in Vancouver has got me thinking that maybe they've got a leg up on the rest of us.  Maybe they've tasted an enlightenment born of suffering that the rest of us could benefit from gaining.  Maybe in our never ending quest to keep ourselves insulated from suffering and insecurity we've inoculated ourselves to the glories of an afternoon sleep in the park.

Now, granted, this might all be sounding very silly and ninny-ish and so on.  I get that.  I just wanted to follow that thought down the trail for a bit, because...

It's that sort of wondering, that sort of stream-of-consciousness thinking that leads to story.

For as long as I've been paid to come up with ideas and stories and sermons and speeches and scripts that's how it's happened.  I just go for a walk and something hits me.  Yes, there are days where nothing happens, but then--like a rush--I'll get a flood of ideas.

It's about living your life with your eyes and your heart and your spirit as wide open as possible.

Like this morning (and I didn't have my camera which is why I didn't shoot it which is why you're not seeing it) I saw another sleeping person, curled up at the foot of a storefront window, a storefront window that was part of the Versace store here.  Right above their head every high-end label in the World was printed on the glass.  I thought to myself, "Now, there's a dichotomy, a story, waiting to be told.

And I've found that these 'moments of clarity', these seconds where the timeless realm connects to your terrestrial wanderings, happen to artists and non alike.

So if you find yourself in need of a breakthrough at work or needing inspiration to write your wife (or your daughters) a love letter my suggestion is that you go for a walk.

You never know what you'll see come magic hour.

T

Just so you know I wasn't lyin'...

...about that empty room.

That's me, contrast and exposure pushed with shadows eased, to show you the empty room I was doing my 'openers' to, just a few minutes before we were supposed to start.

Real fun that one.  Opening a show that you're sure (in the moment) is doomed because there's no audience.

But it turned out okay.

www.visiontv.ca  (and) www.joytv.ca will show you the proof.

Pretty crazy stuff.

Oh man, sometimes I wish I was in the ice cream delivery business...

T

Be still my beating heart...

Oh holy crap!

(that's how the room looked like when we started...to see how it looked like when we were done, tune in to VisionTV [in Canada] this Friday night at 9:00pm, or stay tuned to this here blog and I'll post a 'lil somethin' somethin' for you when I get a minute...)

It was six minutes to seven.  

We were supposed to start shooting at seven.  We were supposed to have a couple hundred people in the audience because the political special we were getting ready to shoot was supposed to be one half in-depth interview and one half audience interactive.

It was six minutes to seven and the audience was empty.

That's right.  Not a soul.

I stood there feeling like I was about to die.  "Why is it always like this?  Why is it always so hard?  Why, in spite of all the work you do, does it always seem to not be enough?" So I took two steps towards the mobile truck outside--going to see my Director to talk about changing everything--and, before I could take the third step, one of our handlers walked in.  "We got fifty people!"

Fifty people?

Oh holy crap...

So, I turned on my heel, took a deep breath, got ready to go and by the time we started there were eighty in the audience.  So we switched up our axis (the direction in which we were planning to shoot...) and shot the room so that it looked fuller than it was.

And it turned out okay.  Maybe better than okay.

This friday we'll see how it all turned out, and not before then, because for the most part I was just hanging on for dear life while shooting it.  I told my wife afterward that I felt like I was white water rafting.  That's the thing that happens when you pack a room full of politicians and their partisan crowds.  The room was seriously divided into four and each part would erupt or boo or laugh at different points in the debate--artlessly doing their darndest to push their candidate and denigrate the others.

It felt a lot like high school.

There were moments of honesty but plenty of moments where you could 'tell' that the politicians were stringing you along, delivering a 'line' spinning a tale. Mostly I'm just happy we were able to finish the thing.

And that's the point for you friend.

Even when it's so hard you don't think you'll be able to survive.  Even when you don't have enough time to do it right (we had five days lead time).  Even when the audience doesn't show and one of the political parties pulls out two hours before you're supposed to shoot only to come back online forty five minutes before shooting and even if the room is a hundred degrees 'cause the venue didn't tell you their air conditioning is fluky.  Even if you can't get a word in edgewise because your guests are professional 'talkers'.  Even if it feels like total chaos.

Just keep taking those little steps forward.

Before you know it you'll have achieved something, despite it all.

T

Political call to action...

Okay, so this is what they call living on the wild side.

We're shooting an election special this weekend.  Saturday September 20th we'll be at the Roundhouse in Yaletown (downtown Vancouver) having an in-depth discussion of the ways in which FAITH--the things we believe about the issues we live with every day--is at play in this election.

Our feature guest will be Ms. Elizabeth May, leader of The Green Party.  That's her up top. We're excited to sit down with her, in advance of her first mainstream TV debate with the other four party leaders (Oct 1st and 2nd), to get her take on what this election means from a moral and spiritually tuned-in perspective.

In the second half of the show four local candidates--representing the NDP, Liberal, Progressive Conservative, and Green parties--will take the stage to debate each party's platform and add their unique take on the things Canadians believe and the ways in which they plan to address those beliefs if elected.

So here's why I'm posting this.

I'd like to be able to ask Ms. May and the other candidates questions that YOU send me. Questions from average Canadians, people like me, who care about our country and believe certain things about what's right, what's wrong, what's just, what's unjust and what a government should do to see the truth protected in a pluralist society.

So send me your questions.  I promise to put the best of them to our leaders. And I'll credit you, meaning you'll hear your question read and get a 'shout out' on national television--that would be all across the country--on Friday night, September 26th between 9-11pm.

And maybe--just this once--you could consider letting your friends know about this post, 'cause when it comes to politics, the more the merrier.

Seriously.

More.  Gimme' more people.  'Cause we need your questions.

(and maybe call or email your MP while you're at it or the editor at your local newspaper 'cause if enough people get on it, democracy can work...)

For real.

todd@aiyalonentertainment.com

Stress-business...

So I'm hanging on for dear life.

Doing my best to pull together the political special I referred to in my last post.  It's been a crazy day.  I think I've made well over a hundred phone calls and sent more than that by way of email.  This post has five things worth noting because:

a) You might be a show-biz person and this kind of 'tale from the trenches' story will encourage you re: what you're going to face, have faced, or will face again.

b) You might be a pastor and the whole 'manipulating your way forward for the sake of the common good' theme contained herein might be useful to you.

c) You might just be somebody with a job or a life that sometimes gets out of control and you feel like you're going to drop dead and this here story will help you feel like you're not alone.

So here are the five...

First, we locked everything.  The location fell into place this morning and we locked all four local Member of Parliament candidates (PC, Lib, NDP, Green) so we officially went 'go' with it, put a deposit in with our local production services company, booked flights and basically started burning through money.  The point here is that sometimes, even when a thing is huge and last-minute and seemingly impossible, it can come together if you work hard enough.

(and have money to burn)

Second, near the end of the day we got a call from Jack Layton of the NDP saying he'd come to our event if Prime Minister Harper comes.  That's really cool because it will help us make our case to Mr. Harper's office that this event is one that really matters for Canadians and is something he should make time for.  The point here is that, sometimes--if you hang around long enough just doing what you do--you'll have a surprise 'pinch hit' come in from a benefactor when you least expected it.  So hang in there.

Third, we began to notice some serious interest in the press re: what we're working on here so tomorrow we'll start talking to the press and promoting our event in earnest.  That's potentially fun 'cause it means we'll have a chance to connect with and impact more people. The point here being that you shouldn't even think (at least not too much) about promoting a 'thing' until it begins to show signs of promoting itself.  That 'self promotional urge' usually appears as a result of 'word of mouth' which you can neither create nor control but which simply starts happening as you talk to people in a way that's compelling enough that they start talking to people.  Point being, have something compelling to say, say it with conviction and when you start to notice momentum building, THEN start thinking about how to 'push' what's happening.

Fourth, we got turned down pretty harshly by the Bloc today.  They said (and I do in fact QUOTE) "We don't care about this kind of issue in this election..."

Shocking.

The 'issue' we're talking about is the spiritual faith and beliefs of Canadians.  Our thesis is simply that behind every issue and at the root of every policy there is some kind of belief about what's right, what's wrong, what's just, what's unjust and we feel it's important for voters to know what their potential leaders believe.

So, we're taking that 'slap' and talking about it.

And people are starting to listen.

Point being that, when people attack you or treat you with a lack of respect or indifference, if you keep your brain in gear, you might be able to find a way to turn that 'slight' into something that can help you keep moving forward.

Lemonade from lemons, or something like that.

So, keep at it, keep at it, keep at it.

Oh yeah, then my venue tried to pull out on me.  So fifth--you just can't control anything.

I'm blogging while waiting to hear back from them 'cause I called them and told 'em "Oh no you didn't..."

We'll see.

Such fun...

T

The oldest game in town...

Well maybe not the oldest, but pretty close.

I'm getting involved in politics this week.

(and the price of it has equaled busy-ness to the degree that my blog has been a bit neglected...)

So, this saturday in Vancouver, I'm going to produce/host a two-hour TV special featuring some of the leaders of Canada's major political parties (The Greens have locked, the Liberals and Bloc have expressed strong interest and we're still chasing the PC's and NDP) and all of the main MP candidates for B.C.

The idea is to explore the spirituality of the people, the campaign, and the main issues shaping Canada this time around.

It's an area (the spirituality of it all...) not often well-served.

Our politics tend to get so partisan--Lord knows, I spent much of my youth a near-single-issue-voter--that it's rare to see a discussion that explores the reason/belief that undergirds a policy or an approach to an issue that doesn't devolve into fear-mongering, hate-tactics or some other form of bullheaded silliness.

So, this weekend I'll get a chance to take a stab at it.

We expect to have a thousand people in the room with us and we're hoping for some explosive moments.

The first segment of the special will feature me in one-on-one interview with as many of the leaders as will come, or allow me to visit them this week with a crew, exploring their story, the things they believe about life and how those beliefs impact their approach to politics, democracy and this campaign.

The second segment will be a moderated question and answer segment where the leaders will field questions from average Canadians in the audience then the third segment will see us bid adieu to the leaders and have the local MP candidates from each party join us on-stage for a panel-style debate/discussion followed by Q&A with the audience.

I'm hoping it'll be pretty cool TV.

The special will air nationally on VisionTV on September 26th from 9:00-11:00pm and then repeat on the 28th.

An interesting tidbit for your eyes only is that the Bloc said they'd come but don't have the budget to afford to fly Mr. Duceppe out to Vancouver.  How crazy is that?  So, we said we'd pay. I'll be interested to see what they say to that.

Secondly, I thought you might want to send me some questions you'd like me to ask the leaders.  I'd credit you on the special and you, through me, would get to ask the present and future leaders of the Country the question that's at the heart of the matter from your perspective.

Just thought I'd put it out there.

T

Eight items or less...

I was supposed to be getting a bottle of wine...

It turned into a roast chicken, sushi, eggs, cheese, creamed honey, three cans of peaches, and shredded wheat.

That's nine.

Nine items.

And the 'express lane' at our grocery store is eight items or less.  

Now seeing as it was twenty minutes to closing time and the place was deadsville I figured I'd ask and see.  So I walked up to the express checkout girl and asked her if she was going to count the cans of peaches as one item or as three.  She looked embarrassed, blushed a little, then told me the 'scanner' (let's pass the buck, shall we?) would count 'em as three.

So I smiled, thanked her, turned my cart around and walked over to the less busy of the two remaining checkouts.  

(and each of them was quite busy 'cause the store was conserving staff and shutting things down therefore had only two lanes left open...)

As I walked away I could hear snickering.  People were laughing at me 'cause I turned away from the express lane even though I was only ONE item over.

I walked past the first remaining checkout and it looked pretty busy.  I got to the second remaining and it was even more so.  So I turned around again and returned to the first remaining checkout.

(all of this for a few groceries...)

I took my place in line, unloaded my NINE items, and noticed that the ladies in front of me were smiling at me a bit.  I didn't think much of it.  Sometimes women smile.  Then as they turned to leave, their groceries all packed, the one lady looked me in the eye.

"How many items did you have?" she asked, grinning.  "Well, I had nine."  "Thought so!" and she started laughing, good natured, and her friend with her.  Catching on, I looked at them and smiled in turn.  "Well, you know, it's a pet peeve of mine, people who go through the express lane with ten, thirteen items.  It's like they're telling the rest of us we count for less than nothing.  I just couldn't stand being one of those jerks."

(so self-righteous...)

"Yeah we figured..." said they.  And I took my opening for one last stab for the sake of the light in the dark.  

"Yeah well, you know what they say about righteousness?  It's what you do when no one else is looking..."

They laughed, good natured, and smiled at that too.

And as they walked off I had one of those quietly thankful moments.  Thankful that, for once, I did the right thing.  I didn't act like a numbskull.  I wasn't a jerk.  I did the right thing, just because it was the right thing.

(and Lord knows, that can be a rare thing in the midst of my busy days...)

And that got me thinking about you people and the moments you'll have this week where you can do the right thing--even when/if it inconveniences you.

And then I got to thinking about preachers and storytellers and I realized that you can't fake the good stuff.  Good writers, electric preachers, do it right because something's 'right' inside of them.  I don't mean they're 'all' right--because none of us are--just that sometimes they get things the way they're meant to be gotten.

They get it right.

And you can't fake right.

When no one's looking, when no one's around, you have to be able to go to the quiet place and pull blood from a stone.  You have to find the inspiration to inspire.  You have to anticipate how the audience will be reacting to what you're doing to them with your story/sermon structure and the ways in which you're manipulating the content and storyline and you have to design a piece of work that will mean something to them.

Same thing if you're leading a team at work or trying to make your marriage work.

You have to have it 'right' on the inside 'cause if it 'aint, what you show on the outside 'aint going to be neither.

(southern-ism intended...)

Or to put a twist on what Forest's Momma told him.

"Stupid does what stupid is..."

Right?

Right.

From checkout lines, to storylines.

Doing the right thing needs to come natural or, before you know it, you're a propagandist.

T

New Show...

Oh baby...

(yes, yes, a double entendre for all you Bono fans...)

So that's what my show is about this coming Sunday night.  No, not Bono, and not double entendres 'cause that would be dead boring on the latter front and impossible ('cause I, for certain, 'aint big enough to get 'Mr. U2' yet...) on the former.

It's about the 'pornification of culture'.

You can read all about it, here.

And may I just say that finding the strength to be very transparent on TV and online is dang hard to do.  By this point in the game, hundreds of people are reading this blog each month (almost hit a thousand last month) and that's only going to get worse once tens of thousands (to start) then potentially up to a couple hundred thousand start watching me Sunday nights at 9:00pm out west following '60 Minutes' on JOYTV10.

Pretty scary.

And what I find most interesting about it is the degree to which years and years of working as a 'pro' in the Church-industry have conditioned me to really worry about how honest I am and what I say or don't say.  I'm always wondering 'Gee, should I really go that far?  Should I really say it that way?' and the problem with that is that, in the creative arts, success is typically achieved through the lack of filter.

Never mind success.  How about impact?  It seems to me that it is when we tell the truth, regardless of how it makes us look, that we find a way to deeply and truly connect with the people who're listening to/watching/reading us.

So here's me asking you to do three things:

1) If you know anyone in Vancouver or the surrounding region tell them to tune us in this Sunday night, September 7th, at 9:00pm Pacific on JOYTV10.

2) Tell any spiritual leaders you know to drop me a line 'cause I want to feature them on the site talking about the issues from their perspective.

3) Find a way to be as truthful and dangerously-honest as you can within your sphere of influence 'cause that's how we write great sermons, plant great Churches, make great movies and life-changing TV, build 'with it' families and change the culture at work.

From one would-be exhibitionist to another...

Keep keeping it dangerous baby 'cause it's dangerous people who change the World.

T

The end is here...

You like that slogan don't you?

"The end is here..."

Neat twist on an old theme.  Yes, I like it too.  It's the slogan for my film.  Just plugging it 'cause you never know when good 'ol Stevie is going to stumble across your blog.

But I'm using it today because of what happened at the Republican National Convention last night.

Oh booyy...

Now, in the interests of full-disclosure, let's get it right out of the way.  I am a guy who would have voted for 'W' the first time around--for sure.  I liked Al Gore, but at the time I was still reeling from the icky feeling that had attached itself to Brother Clinton... 

And I was much more of a single issue voter back then (pro-life) than I am today.

I probably would have voted for 'W' again for his second term 'cause, like much of his base, I felt like giving the Arab world a good ass whuppin' was a pretty good idea at the time and Theresa Heinz Kerry scared the ketchup out of me.

Alrighty, how's that for some honesty?

And all of the above means that I probably would have been kicking myself as 'W' slowly but surely got stupider and stupider and drove the country more and more into the ground these past four years which means that I would have been very encouraged by what looks to be on offer with Brother Obama.

Yes, I'm one of those 'would be Republicans' who would've been voting Democrat this year.

All the more so after last night.

Am I the only guy who felt like Sarah Palin's speech (and Rudy Giuliani's and Friggin' Romney's) was a throwback?  Can you believe how offensive and partisan they were?  I felt like I was watching something from the early eighties.  So much for "There is no Red America.  

There is no Blue America..."  Frig.  I was so upset by how the RNC decided to attempt to re-draw the battle lines along partisan, old-politics, lines.

Depressing.

And I can't help but wonder if it's going to backfire on them.

'Cause my sense of it is, there are plenty of younger folk like me out there, who are sick and tired of having to choose between red and blue like it's between black and white or wrong and right.  What happened to grey?  Palin's railing about how Barak wants to raise your taxes and what a horrible thing that is and I'm shouting back at the TV--"Hello! Have you noticed your national deficit these days?"  Then she insulted the European way of life as if for America to take it's cues from Europe, as Obama seemed to be doing on his trip overseas, is nigh unto death itself.  And again, I was screaming at the TV--"You could learn a thing or two from Europe ya' numbskull!"  I wonder if she's looked at the brilliant successes Norway and her sister nations have made of themselves?

And again, the hammering on pro-life vs pro-choice.

Look, I get it, I'm pro-life.  I have four babies to prove it.  I think the abortions that have been carried out, seemingly willy-nilly, for the past several decades are a travesty and a searing indictment on our shared humanity.  I think linking the abortion issue to a woman's right to choose thereby making it a feminist issue was brilliant and evil.  

But 'W' has been in office for eight friggin' years and the Republicans have controlled congress and the senate for six of the eight and have had a lock on the supreme court for almost as long and has Roe vs Wade been overturned?  

Hell no.

So what's the point of locking yourself out of the discussion, out of making a difference for justice and peace and unity, because you're stuck on trying to reform a law that's as entrenched as the first amendment?

And did they mention the unjust war in Iraq once?

No.

Or the tanking economy?

No.

Or the death-grip big-oil and big-lobbying and Wallstreet have on the White House?

Nope.

And on and on she went about 'small town' America.  You know what I want to do when I get to a small town?  I want to run.  As if these small towns outweigh the cities.  As if an insular society is somehow superior to a pluralistic one.  As if having Jesus AND Elvis as your heroes is a good thing.

Jesus, I get.

Elvis?

No thank you.

So 'no thank you' from me to the RNC.  No thank you to trying to divide us along red and blue lines.  Not anymore.  

No thank you to 'single issue voting'.  No thank you to trying to scare me into thinking that North America is a target without acknowledging that the reason we're a target is because of our imperialist tendencies since WWII.  Can you believe she said that saying 'We're all Georgians' is a good thing?  As if the U.S.A has the right to intervene.  Who gave us the right? Call it what it is.  It's that pipeline that runs through Georgia that you're freaking out about.

Oh, and the whole "We've got plenty of oil and natural gas off the Alaskan shelf..." comment? Gee, maybe she knows something the rest of us don't.  

I'm certainly not a left-wing, lunatic-fringe, tree-hugger but I gotta' admit that the Picken's Plan makes a heck of a lot of sense to me.

"More drilling now"?

No thanks.

How 'bout more repentance now?  How 'bout more 'you know we really ought to re-think how we spend out money and our standard of living...' now?  How 'bout 'we need to stop sticking our noses in other people's business...' now?

Sheesh.

So depressing.

Back to sermonizing and screenwriting tomorrow, but I had to get that off my chest today.

T

Barbershop Jesus...

Alright, a couple non sequiturs first...

1) My wife is making me eat grapes.  I just had a sandwich for lunch then walked back upstairs (yes, I work from home) to get some more 'cause I was still hungry.  "Have some grapes..." said the wife.  "I want another sandwich..." said I.  "Nah, have grapes.  I was talking to your Mom and she said you look like you're losing weight.  Have grapes."  So I'm eating grapes.  The point of this? Listen to your wife and you'll end up skinnier.  And I hear that skinnier husbands get more...lovin'.

2) Have your forgotten how great Soundgarden were as a band?  Just re-downloaded 'Superunknown' and it STILL rocks.  Check them out here for a refresher then hit iTunes for the album.  Best $7.99 you'll spend this month.

Okay, onto the point of this post.

I had an inexplicable urge to go get my hair cut today.  

Strange urge.  I'm not THAT bushy just yet.  I am growing a beard, which is a reaction to having to be so highly-coiffed all the time when I'm shooting TV shows, but my hair is still a week away from 'zero hour'.  Anyway, today had to be the day and I had no idea why.

Then the 'why' walked into the room.

He's the young pastor of one of the hippest and happenin'est Churches in our area.  A bit of a 'wunderkind' some would call him.  His Church has grown from zero to fair busting at the seams in four short years.  He's good-looking, smart, passionate and, most importantly on the 'Pastor scale', he's full of empathy.  The kind of dude who comes across as sincerely interested in people and their journey.

Last year I almost got in a fistfight with some of the male leaders at his Church.  It was a case of legalism run amok slamming headlong into a guy like me, and guys like me tend to pick 'fight' on the 'fight or flight' scale.  Anyway, the details of the altercation don't beg mention but what does need to be blogged about was the aftermath.

Since retiring as Pastors of our Church back in January of 2006 we've found it very difficult to find a Church we feel might be our new 'home'.  And it's not like we haven't tried.  I think last count was five or six or seven (don't remember exactly) different Churches we've attended for three or four consecutive Sunday's, hoping to find a place that did to us/with us the kind of things Churches can sometimes do.

No dice.

And when you're an ex-preacher, you tend to have a pretty high view of Church and tend to believe that it should continue to be a part of your life.  Problem is, once you've planted a Church your Church-going experience becomes like the movie-going experience for folk like us who are professional (to varying degrees) at rendering story and image for the screen.

I distinctly remember the day when, having studied screenwriting for a year or two at that point, I went to a movie and couldn't watch it the same way.  Much more so once I'd actually directed a feature-film.  I found myself almost unable to watch a movie and enjoy it like a viewer.  I was watching the structure, anticipating the cuts, the cues, debating the merits of the performances.  

It's hard to be a filmmaker and still love the movies.  

Same deal with Churches, service structure, and preaching.  Once you've 'produced' in that environment you become acutely aware of the possibility and peril of it all.  On the one hand possibility--> your service, the things that happen in it, the way in which it's all constructed and done, can speak to your audience in a such a way that it, literally, makes a life or death difference in their lives.  The peril of it is, of course, that you can screw the pooch and waste those people's time leaving them as empty as when they first arrived.

(to the 'pros' I realize there's the sovereignty element as well, I would submit that the objective works through the subjective and sometimes over and against it but usually in concert...)

Same thing with movies and popular television.  At the highest end of the spectrum you can be making great art that speaks something into the culture and into the lives of your audience while being entertaining and immersive at the same time.  That's the possibility of the arts. The peril is that you become one more sycophant creating pap that's forgotten as soon as it's consumed, wasting the promise of your talent on a farce.

It's hard to be a preacher and still love Church.  It's hard to be a producer and still love the arts. It's hard to be a _______ (insert your career) and still love _________ (insert your industry).

And I'm here to tell you that if you lose the love of the thing you're well on your way to losing your impact.

So that Sunday of 'the fight' left a long and lingering pain in my wife and I.  We really felt sullied by it.  And the worst thing is that we were really loving the Church.  My wife especially.  Our kids really liked their kids program, it was in our extended neighborhood and had a real sense of vitality to it.  Then the fight. So I said what I said, the dudes reacted the way the reacted, and we never went back.

The problem was, the lead pastor and his wife and their kids are our neighbors.

(how you like them apples?)

And there came a night when the lead pastor's wife was walking by our house and my wife said 'hi' and the lead pastor's wife didn't really respond.  She just kind of glanced over quickly and kept walking. "That's it!" says the wife.  "She knows. They hate us.  Why couldn't you have just kept your mouth shut?"  

A thing we've tried to avoid as much as possible in life is that moment when you spot somebody with whom you've got bad blood and your stomach lurches.  You're at the grocery store, there's no way to avoid them, now what?  Oh crap this is going to suck.

That moment.

So we've just been dreading that moment with the lead pastor and his wife.

And today was the day.

I'm reading, at the barber shop.  I see a business-looking-guy reading the paper.  He's one in front of me in the cue.  His spot opens up.  He stands.  I recognize him.  "Oh Crap!" I think. "Dang it!  Why'd I have to come today? Calm down Todd.  Just keep reading your GQ.  He probably has no idea who you are..."

Haircut finishes.  He pays.  Turns.  Walks right up to me.  Offers his hand.  "Hey, are you Todd Cantelon?"

And we got to talking.

His ended up late for an appointment.  I ended up missing my haircut.

But I found out he had no idea that what had happened had happened and he and I had a chance to chat, pro to pro, about the promise and peril of Church.  It was a good moment.  He told me his wife didn't know a thing about what had happened either and that her 'walk by' that night must have been connected to a racing mind and deteriorating peripheral vision (!)

Bottom line it was all good.

As we shook hands in the parking lot he saw me going for my car.  "Aren't you going to get your hair cut?"  I thought about it for a second.  "Nah, way I see it, I was here for you today..."

And maybe for me.

'Cause now Niki and I can cross another potential couple of 'enemies' off the list and can stop worrying about meeting them at the grocery store.

All that to say.

Don't lose the love of what you do, even if you have to fight for it.

And...

When you get those gut instinct moments.  Go with them.  Sometimes you'll get a haircut, sometimes you'll get a piece of peace.

You never know what you'll meet when you venture out into the superunknown.

(skidda-ttisshh)

T