7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 9) - the eclectic musical edition

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I can't say this week was completely uneventful.  It was, however, fairly quiet and low-key.  Visits to the chiropractor.  Long walks.  Lunch mid-week with one of my favorites.  Great conversations with amazing friends.  And summer.  It is finally summer!  And everyone in Illinois is happier and friendlier and has suddenly remembered why we choose to live here: summers.  They're (mostly) worth it.

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So in lieu of anything truly newsworthy, I offer you a random suggestion and several You-Tube videos.  First, the randomness: There is a virus going around at our church right now which is likely some sort of flu bug, but is so rampant at the moment that people have started calling it the Torch Plague.  Someone mentioned that no-sugar-added red grape juice is a flu-stopper.  The disclaimer is: once you have the flu, good luck with that - but if you run into someone who has the flu, go home and drink grape juice and you'll be fine.  Well - I tried it, even tho I was already feeling queasy, and while my appetite still isn't really back to normal yet, I never did get truly ill.  Praying that remains true.  And highly recommend it as something at least worth trying once.

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There's not a whole lot to do when you're sitting around feeling queasy except sitting still and watching tv.  In addition to almost an entire season of Sabrina, The Teenage Witch (hey, don't judge), I've also spent a fair amount of time watching videos on YouTube.   If I needed a reminder that I have extremely eclectic taste in music, my YouTube viewing this week surely demonstrated it...

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A friend from church sent me this song on iTunes yesterday.  I watched the music video today, and all I can say is: if I knew someone who could fingerpaint red light into the air, I'd consider her pretty unforgettable, too:

I think what I love best about this song is that it's like the Backstreet Boys or Savage Garden meets Daughtry - only in Spanish.  Not exactly something you hear every day....

And the background singers in this video?  Totally reminded me of the Partridge Family.

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Speaking of whom...  I found this today, and it made me... ahem, Happy...  ;)

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OH!  Wait - there was a news-worthy item this week.  So, my chiropractor told me to go to a particular store (known for its low prices) and purchase a foam massage roller so I can do a new exercise at home every day.  I went today to pick one up - and was absolutely appalled.  In all honesty, I was initially appalled by the hideous color choices (red or grey, really?  ugh.  if i'm going to buy exercise equipment, it ought at least be pretty....).  But upon further inspection - both options carried a bright yellow warning tag stating that the roller was made with one or more chemicals known in the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects, etc.

Are you kidding me?!  How could I possibly buy something clearly labelled "this might give you cancer"?  And who would responsibly sell it?  I couldn't do it.  Cheap, or not, I can't make myself disregard that tag.  So I'm off to another store tomorrow.  Hoping the one I saw elsewhere that's twice as expensive doesn't come with the same sort of label.

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Back to music.  I am completely hooked on the soundtrack from Pitch Perfect.  The harmonies in some of those songs are intense.  (This one is my favorite.)  I love a capella.  I also love a good parody.  Add them together?  Even better.  I know it's totally the wrong time of year for this, but hey - if some people listen to Christmas music all year long, why not Hanukkah music, too?  :)

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 8)

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It's been a somewhat eventful week here in Happy-land.  It began with attempting to get up out of a chair Sunday morning, and failing miserably.  It continued with an ongoing battle between my pride and common sense.  I finally swallowed my pride and went to a chiropractor on Wednesday - and am so very glad I did.  Am on the mend now, and have learned a lot along the way.  Kind of in awe of the complex ways in which God constructed us.  Also very grateful to have a doctor who says, "I'm going to be praying for you."  And am loving the million and one ways in which God has orchestrated my life to make sure things like that happen.

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I sort of love it that the caveat here is: "it's just a list" - but I am nevertheless honored to be on it.  (However that happened...)  And wow.  If you were looking for something to read, there you are!  (I will never again have an excuse for being bored...)

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One of my top reads of the week was this post on whether or not men and women can be 'just' friends.  Written by a married man, it's a really gutsy, honest, and in-your-face kind of post, and it really makes you think.  It's a little on the long side, but it's worth it.  (Tip: stick with it thru the comments!) The post kind of speaks for itself, on so many levels, but I will say this: I am so convicted by this line: "...we...have reduced relationships to what we get out of them."  Ugh.  Yes, all too often, we have.  But it doesn't have to be that way.

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I've been thinking a lot about one of Andy Stanley's more recent podcasts: Trust vs. Suspicion.  (I may have listened to it at least three times at this point...)  I think it is so easy to let suspicion fill the gap when we fail each other - to attribute the perceived failure of another person to their character, and to consider their 'failure' grounds to call foul on 'breach of trust.'   Putting trust in that gap instead - even when the other person doesn't seem to be doing the same - can feel like such a risk.  In spite of that - I would still call trust the better option over suspicion.  Believe that the other person had your best interests at heart and isn't wounding you intentionally and suddenly the (sometimes long) road towards reconciliation can seem so much easier to travel.

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There are only ELEVEN DAYS left until the Gurus of Tech conference at Willow Creek!!!   I am personally looking forward to spending two days surrounded by people who are (mostly) geekier than I am, to time with one of my BESTEST friends, and to possibly running into someone I met once in Germany; he was wearing a "More Cowbell" t-shirt.   As if such a thing needed lobbying...  I mean, duh.  It's a cowbell.  Of course you want more...

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This week, I succeeded in creating my very first interactive wireframe.  And it was fun!  If you actually know what that means, you should check out InVision.  Highly recommend them if you're new to web design.  They pretty much made wireframing a piece of cake.

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And since no 7 Quick Takes is complete without video and/or shameless plug - if you haven't read The Unwanteds yet - you should.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Bolder Boundaries: Re-Imagining Friendship Between Men And Women

As previously noted, the Bold Boundaries conference I attended last month was absolutely phenomenal, and I came home with soooo much to think about.  I went to the gathering with a lot of questions - and I came home with a lot more.  But I think the questions I came home with are better questions than the ones I had at first.  The questions I have now are bigger... no less personal, but definitely wider in scope.

I went to the conference thinking that the main question I was asking was: "Are Harry and Sally wrong?  Can men and women truly be friends?"  And it turns out that there are so many more related questions that play into the answer to that question.  This isn't an exhaustive list by any means, but here are a few I think worth asking:

• If men and women can be 'just' friends (tho true friends might consider the word 'just' to be an insult to their friendship), what does that look like?  What should it look like?
• What informs our beliefs about our gut answer to that question?
• How do our social and gender constructs not only influence our beliefs about friendship, but our reading of Scripture?
• What does the Bible say about friendship between men and women, anyway?
• How does marital status play into friendship?  (And what does it say that we tend to categorize people by their marital status (or lack thereof)?)
• How do complementarian and egalitarian viewpoints play into this conversation?
• How many of our relational rules are governed by fear masquerading as 'wisdom'?
• Is there anything inherently wrong with the 'rules' that govern our friendships (especially within the church), whether we're aware of them or not?
• And do the answers to any of these questions matter to God?  And if so, why?

I'm finding that I have a lot to say (finally!) about all of this, but it's going to take awhile for me to verbalize it.  I am, after all, an INFP, and the 'N' piece of that requires time to take in all this information so as to gradually recognize patterns and create future possibilities...  ;)

But in the interim, I will say this:

• I do believe that it is possible for men and women to be the best of friends, and that all true friendships are marked by honesty, transparency, openness, communication, commitment, integrity, love, appreciation, mutual encouragement and fun (among other things!) - regardless of whether those friendships exist between 2 women, 2 men, or a man and a woman, and regardless of marital status.
• I believe that cultivating cross-gender friendship is an integral part of living into the unity Jesus prayed for the night before He died, and that this kind of unity matters for 2 reasons: 1) it was one of the things foremost in His mind as He was headed towards death and this tells us that unity between us matters to God; and 2) it demonstrates to the world the grace-filled, boundary-breaking love of Jesus in a way that nothing else can.
• And I believe that re-imagining friendship between men and women, especially within the Church, is necessary in order to root up some of the core issues that dis-unify the Church and hinder her witness.

So what does it look like to have "bolder boundaries" in our cross-gender friendships?  I have a few thoughts on that - so stay tuned.  ;)

And in the meantime, I'd love to hear from you.  What do you think about all this?

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol.7)

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It's been a crazy wild ride IRL this week.  For one thing, I've discovered - thanks to Shauna Niequist (who uses this shorthand often) and a bit of internet research - that IRL means "in real life."  (I've also discovered the meaning of another important shorthand term (thanks to a friend who texted it, sure that I would knew what she meant): "IMHO" - which means (in case you didn't know) "in my humble opinion.")  In an effort to display why such things are important, might I suggest that IMHO, VR (which can mean more than 75 different things, but in this case means "virtual reality")  does have a place IRL.  And that LILABOC is an excellent shorthand for "Life is like a box of chocolates" - because you can say LILABOC a lot faster, and explain the rest of what you meant while eating chocolate later.  With friends that you met on the internet and then randomly (or not so randomly) ran into at a conference.

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Last weekend I had the privilege of spending two days at a conference called Bold Boundaries.  It was an absolutely amazing weekend.  A handful of people from very diverse backgrounds and theological perspectives spent the weekend swapping stories and asking questions about friendship between men and women, particularly in the church - exploring the ways in which our social and gender constructs have shaped our beliefs, debunking some myths, and looking towards Jesus for His perspective.  I learned a LOT.  I also found healing (I wasn't expecting that), came home with a few great questions to talk about with my friends, and felt so incredibly privileged to be a part of a group of people who embodied so much of what it means to be the church.  I'll have a lot to say about a lot of it over the next few weeks as I process thru it all, so please stay tuned!  (And join the conversation.)

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One of my personal take-aways from the conference was a new-found appreciation for the gift that it is to feel completely safe being 100% myself.  I have a handful of friends with whom this has (almost) always been true and I am so grateful for their love and acceptance - not just of my positive qualities, but of my growth edges as well.  Being truly seen and understood (without having to explain it), is an experience far more rare in the church than it should be.  And it is a gift.  Finding it among strangers who quickly became friends last weekend is a memory I will treasure for a very, very long time.

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One of the funnest moments of the conference happened right when we arrived.  My friend Steve went with me.  I'd observed at one point that it was kind of lame, going to a friendship conference by myself, and Steve decided to come along.  We were greeted at the door by a wonderful lady who was absolutely thrilled that we had come together.  So much so that she summoned her husband immediately, and with great joy, announced: "This is Happy, and this is Steve.  And they're friends!!!"   Lol.  Maybe you had to be there, but it was incredibly sweet - and I think we both felt really celebrated in that moment.  We are friends - and it's awesome.  And it was fun, in that moment, to know it made someone else happy, too.  :)

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Speaking of friends, and things that make people happy - here's a shameless plug: if you are looking for a good story (or several), you really should swing by World of Shandor.  I'm privileged to know the women behind the website, and I'm really enjoying their latest story, The Levour Exhibition.  Kind of wish I could go walking around in the world they've created.

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Tomorrow is Derby Day!  I haven't picked my horse yet, but I'm looking forward to sleeping in and then just puttering around most of the day - cleaning, writing, drinking entirely too much coffee, and watching all the pre-Derby footage.  The only better way I can think of to spend the first weekend in May would to actually BE at the Derby, wearing a sensational hat.  Someday...  Maybe.

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In the meantime, here's my video pick of the week.

Wil Wheaton, on "Why It's Awesome To Be A Nerd."  (It's pretty great.  We just won't ask the obvious question: what in the world is he wearing?!)

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!