A Picture

Autobiography Update #2

"About Me"
by Jason Dingle

My name is Jason Dingle. I go to school. I am six. My birthday is August 17th, 1982.
I like school. It is fun, but it is hard. School is not a place to play. I have tried it. It isn't fun to get into so much trouble.
My favorite pie is blueberry.
I like playing. It is fun. I play with Rustyn Booth. I like Tommy White and I like J.R. They are my best friends.
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COMMENT BY JASON DINGLE:

Interesting that this is the 1st thing I find when I Google my name. Yep I'm a Jason Dingle and Yes I was born on August 17, 1982 but any more than that and you might have to jog my memory.
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COMMENT BY ME:

Jason, did you go to Chamberlayne Elementary School? And did your sisters swim at Chamberlayne Recreation Association in the summers? If so, I think we used to ride your power wheels jeep through your front yard and ride bikes in your neighborhood when we were younger. I'd be interested to know if this is you.
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COMMENT BY ME: (foot in mouth)

Just kidding, I was thinking of Jason Lange in our first grade class... but I'm still interested to know whether this is your autobiography from First Grade.
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I'm still waiting to hear back from him... maybe it's because I chose the other Jason over him?

The Grass is Always Greener...

Autobiography Update #1

I took the liberty of publishing the "autobiographies" from my First Grade Class on an old blog a couple months ago. Everyone in my First Grade Class at Chamberlayne Elementary School in Richmond, VA wrote about their six year old lives and our teacher put together a book for each of us. My Mom kept it and gave it to me a while back.

If any of you guys followed that, you might be interested in a couple comments on the autobiographies- I included the comments at the end of the original entry.

Original Entry from our First Grade Autobiography book:

"Myself Again" by Lakeylia Bass

I love myself very much, but I get mad at myself sometimes. Do not get mad with yourself, but think before you do things that yourself says to you to do. Then do it. Do what you're supposed to do, but don't be a scaredy cat all your life.

My birthday is right after May, and it is sure long. And it is going to be summer, and it is going to be hot. It might rain some. I might get a puppy for my birthday. And it is going to be a girl puppy, and I will call it Keyme. My sister named hers that. My sister's birthday is the same day as mine, and I like it just the way it is now. My sister and I don't fight. My mom and dad taught us how to walk and talk and learn to read and work. Now I know all of those things that I learned before I came to First Grade. And I like First Grade now, and my sister likes First Grade now.

I am going to be moving in June and will miss my friends and my teacher and my school. I will be sad. My sister will feel the same way as I feel all along.

I like colors, and the colors I like most are red and pink. I like to write a lot. It is hard work to do, but I still write. I think it is fun to write. Sometimes I think writing is hard work, but sometimes it has a funny ending.

My mother is nice, and I will do the same thing that my mother taught me. My dad taught Keshia and me how to ride a bike.

I have brown eyes. My hair is black. I have a big house. It is yellow and has bricks.


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A COMMENT POSTED BY "BRIAN SINGLETON":


How did you get a hold of these poems. Lakeylia is my girlfriend and I told her I ran across a poem she wrote when she was little and she got a kick out of that. Thanks.


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MY RESPONSE:

Brian, that's almost inconceivable that you happened upon your girlfriend's First Grade Autobiography- you're the first person to tell me they know someone from this elementary school class. I was in Lakeylia's First Grade Class at Chamberlayne Elementary School, and I ran across some autobiographies our class had put together back in 1988. I thought they were a unique insight into the mind of a kid, so I put them up here. They're all pretty classic.

Unfortunately I don't remember most of the kids from my First Grade class, but as a question of curiosity, what is Lakeylia up to now?

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BRIAN'S UPDATE:

No problem. It was very interesting to have found this since me and her were talking about writing a few days ago. As stated in the autobiography, she moved right after that school year to Charlotte, NC. She currently works for Bank of America in their investment management group here in Charlotte.

Tebow

Mmmmm...

The Count of Monte Cristo #2 (p 474 of my book)

"...you only recognize in front of you and around you those office-holders whose accreditation has been signed by a minister or by the king and that your short-sightedness leads you to ignore those men whom God has set above office-holders, ministers, and kings by giving them a mission to pursue instead of a position to fill."

The Count of Monte Cristo #1 (p477 of my copy)

"... you know theologians lecturing at the Sorbonne or philosophers in their disputations must sometimes tell one another painful truths..."

...Who Art in Heaven...

Creator of the Universe, I am thankful that you are Love- you are worthy to be honored. Even though we don't always know what Love entails, I do know I want to experience more.

I desperately want your way of doing things to become the way people do things in our culture.

Because you are the Loving Creator we trust you to provide the things we need for life in your creation, even though things in this world are a bit skewed from what their original intention was: give us enough for today- we trust you.

Forgive me the way I forgive people in my life; even though they have really hurt me. This is the way things work in your culture.

Finally, protect me from the evil one and the ways I feel like I should be something less than real and honest.

Into the Wild

Think About It- Commitment

NT Wright on life after life after death (that's not a typo)

Here's an interesting couple paragraphs, very short by NT Wright standards, about the after-life.

Paul Byrd on Competing with God

I just read this article on ESPN.com, and it communicates some of the various points of friction between answering the voice/motivations of God and the voice/motivations of athletic success and the power of the crowd or sports team. It's an interview with Paul Byrd, a MLB pitcher with the Indians, who struggles with "following God" in professional baseball.

I would like to ask Paul whether he thinks God really cares about the outcome of a baseball game when there are much bigger things going on in the world i.e. human trafficking, genocide, AIDS epidemic, etc.?

"That's How We do Pull Ups at Stanford"

I am a 'C,' I am a 'C-H'...

I am toying with the notion that whenever a movement or idea is branded and labeled with a name for the masses, that it inevitably fails in communicating anything. As my thoughts piggy back off of a conversation recently had with Gordon Cosby, where Gordon said that essence can never directly be talked about but only around, I cannot help but notice that Jesus never told people to come be a "Christian." He always said, "come follow me." Come experience what cannot be put into words. Come experience what the essence of my movement is. Then he went on to live deeply with a core group of people, confront the abusive power structures of his time, and live boldly for a furiously, loving Creator God. He did it in a way that communicated what he was about, but it could never be fully explained or communicated in a book or article or essay. It was experienced and dialogged about in real life. Jesus was truly a master teacher and communicator- it's just that his communication style cost the people really willing to listen more of their life than what we'd dedicate to a leisurely read of the USA Today or any other publication no matter how academic. I think part of why the real Jesus was such a masterful communicator is that he forced his listeners into action and didn't let them sit in a hammock mulling over his words on a Sunday afternoon.

Stanford Football- don't want to forget this one

LA Update

After taking the last week to get my bearings and settle into some kind of a routine, I figure I'll update the world on my slide south to Los Angeles. So far, my buddy Gray Harmon has put me up in the wonderful Park la Brea townhouses, and I've been sleeping on my mattress on his floor. He's got a really big room so it's no problem. He keeps telling me to stay as long as I like, but I think it's best if I find a place in the next two weeks at the latest.

On the house hunting front, I thought I had a place lined up when I came down here. It would have been perfect: right next to this guy I know who is involved with an authentic church called Kairos (http://www.kairos.la/), a half mile north of USC's campus, and in a Hispanic neighborhood. But as things turned out, the place got snatched out from under me within two days of moving down here- bummer. So with that apartment being out of the equation, I'm still looking. I think the thing I most would like, much more than a convenient house, cheap rent, or nice surroundings is a roommate that I'd have "spiritual traction" with. So I'm keeping that as my primary focus and we'll see how things fall out from there.

I think the best story from my time here so far has to be when I was looking at the above mentioned apartment that I thought I had in the bag. I drove my Tahoe, with all my belongings inside, down to central LA and walked around the Hispanic neighborhood. At first I was a bit apprehensive because I'd never really taken a stroll through a neighborhood like this one. It butted up against the 10 freeway (and I mean right up against it) and there was just about one white person on the block, me. I felt a bit uneasy walking the street as I tried to find the 1311 address on West 22nd street, and I must have looked a bit out of place. As I strolled up the sidewalk last Sunday, a family sitting on their porch just waved and said hello. I responded and we maybe chatted for thirty seconds, but the interaction made me realize that everyone is still human no matter what the surroundings look like.

I went back to that neighborhood yesterday as I visited my new friend Greg Christman, who had tried to hook me up with the apartment next to him and his wife Julie, and I saw the same old man walking around chatting up a storm with everyone he came in contact with. The neighborhood is quite unique, and I hope to find a place around that area.

Greg has been really helpful even though we barely know each other. He's involved with a church called Kairos (http://www.kairos.la/) out here and after I sent him an email telling him about my decision to move to LA, he said I should move next to him and his wife because an apartment had just opened up. Like I said earlier, it got rented right out from under us, but he's been great in helping me look for places. We drove around his neighborhood and wrote down a bunch of phone numbers but haven't had any luck as of yet. His vision in LA is to create a place where people trying to authentically follow a real and relevant Jesus can share a common courtyard and living space while they live close to one another and then go out and serve the surrounding community- definitely some possibilities for traction here. He said one of his donors is looking to buy some property in LA to make that happen, so maybe they'll hurry up and buy a place. Interestingly, there is a block of apartments for sale right across the street from where he lives now, and he's in the process of mentioning it to his money bags, donor now- who knows, maybe I'll end up there?

More updates to come for whoever is interested.

"Go Fast and Go Straight"

Eventually there will be some non-comedic entries made, but I've enjoyed this one the last week especially with my sister being a NASCAR producer at ESPN. I've been trying to figure out what is so appealing about the sport. All the guys do is push a pedal...

NASCAR Coach Reveals Winning Strategy: 'Drive Fast'

Epic TV Commercial