Random thoughts from the center of Moscow...

I have been keeping a mental checklist of sorts the last few years about why people (me included) blog. I'm not the first to ask this I am sure. Here are a few of my personal reasons I am sure of and an example or two to boot.

I think people blog to process stuff. I know I do. I was in front of the computer within 4 hours after my father died pouring my heart out. I really did not care if anyone read what I said (or did I?) rather I was just trying to put into words what 10 years of knowing his illness would eventually bring about brought about.

I think people blog to mark stuff. I have a friend who left a nice job (the 6 digit a year kind) to transition to a ministry job (the 4 or 5 digit a year kind). A few weeks before he left his job, he blogged. Included a picture and great movie quote too! Interestingly, he posted 3x in 6 weeks and was done forever. His blog is still up but he is so done marking that event in his life. He's 3.5 years down the road and other events are mark worthy now.

I think people blog to recast reality for themselves. I have another friend who blogs but only with pictures (or mostly with pictures). He tells a great story through the lense of the camera. It seems to me that his blog is as much about reminding himself and his family that there is a beauty and a nobleness to what they do that words can never really articulate. The pictures though do a much better job of expressing the beauty (a relative term in this case) of the place he lives and the life they lead.

Finally, I think people blog to see their View Count go up. You know one or two like that, don't you?

It's like she just can't help herself. These fotos are not from the Drudge Report either! They are straight from CNN.com.

Anyway, after TX and OH have their primaries I'm thinking we won't have to hear much from her anymore anyway.

Been Busy

I have 4 kids. I love 'em but man they keep me/us busy. Blogging, though something I think about a lot even though I'm not cutting much grass these days, is just hard to get to. I suggest hanging out at wadehodges.com till I get back in the swing of things. That's where I tend to find myself.

Just Thinking Out Loud

This normally gets me in trouble but at the same time I find it invigorating.

• This Mike Vick thing might very well become the racial issue in Atlanta for the foreseeable future. Opinions seem to largely be along the lines of race. That's a shame.



• I am constantly amazed to find out who reads this blog. I met a friend from college last week in Nashville that said she pretty much knew everything going on in my life. She even called herself "a blog lurker". Counseling is available for that I think J.A.!



• It will be somewhere between 77 and 80 degrees here in Atlanta today...on December 11...what the???



• Today is my brother's 36th birthday. That means I'm 39 which is still not as shocking to me as him being 36. My brother is a great guy. Stop in at the Chick Fil A in Waxahachie, TX, and you'll some of what makes him a great guy.



• I am meeting in about 90 minutes with the son of the founder of one of America's most successful hotel chains about becoming a financial partner with World Wide Youth Camps. I'm kinda shaking my head wondering how a goober like me gets to meet people like him. God takes care of babies and stupid people and, well, clearly I am not a baby.



• Panera Bread offering free wifi is one thing but intentionally putting in plugs all over the restaurant so you can hook up your laptop without even leaving your seat is, as the Guinness boys would say, "Brilliant!" Long live Panera Bread (and free wifi).



• Thanks to Google I found my first boss from back when I was 16 working at the Peanut Shack. He's a preacher now actually.



• I just learned that the father of one my best friends in high school has dementia. Been there. Not fun. Still though, the Lord will reveal himself to that family in amazing and intimate ways as this journey unfolds.



• I am learning more and more to embrace and even run to the hard conversations in life. Lots of reasons for this I think. One is that they are never as bad you think they'll be. They also are best dealt with head on. The old adage you can pay me now or you can pay me later might apply too. I think just maturing as a man and as a Christian has formed this thinking more and more in me. I just don't fear the hard confrontations anymore. I rarely get nervous even. It's not me. I hope (and will humbly profess) that it is the Lord in me that makes me feel this way.

That's probably enough for now. Seeing as how I have no cut grass in well over a month I've needed a place to hash out these deep, soooooooooo deep, random thoughts of mine.

To the degree they are true...may they bless you.