Monday, January 28, 2008

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

phobias: we all got 'em...some more than others

Some of these are state-the-obvious-ish fears like the fear of atomic explosions; some of them make you wonder if there are people that actually have them. These are just a few that I thought...humorous (or profound).

Chickens- Alektorophobia
Beards- Pogonophobia
Chopsticks- Consecotaleophobia
Atomic Explosions- Atomosophobia
Bald people- Peladophobia
Beautiful women- Caligynephobia
Peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth- Arachibutyrophobia
Sermons- Homilophobia
Clowns- Coulrophobia
Bolsheviks- Bolshephobia
Everything- Panophobia, Panphobia, Pamphobia, or Pantophobia
Garlic- Alliumphobia
Being tickled by feathers- Pteronophobia
Old people- Gerontophobia
Words, long- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
Pope, the- Papaphobia
Thinking- Phronemophobia

Monday, January 14, 2008

we can't escape the realization of the fall

This is an excerpt from one of the Worldview Academy podcasts with Bill Jack and Jeff Baldwin. Bill Jack:

I recently took Ruby Nell, my ten year old, down to the local Castlerock, Colorado confectionaire, and we got some ice cream. So, we’re sitting there and we made our choices from all these delicious and delightfully named selections. Ya’ know, they had Purple Hazelnut, they had Pistachio, they had Strawberry Peanut Butter, Raspberry Sorbet...they had one—this really rich concoction, you could just look at it and gain weight, ya’ know—it was called Death by Chocolate. So we were sitting there, enjoying our little taste treat, and there was another family, and they came up and they made their choices. And in response, the server acknowledged one of their decisions by saying this: “Is that one scoop of Death?” And here’s the thing that struck me about that: even in that pleasant, respite—on a warm autumn afternoon where the sun is filtering through the window and I’m sitting there with my daughter... I can’t escape the realization of the fall.

And what was amazing was that “death” was a word that was new to Adam and Eve. Even in their expansive vocabulary. After all, Adam named all the animals. He had an expansive vocabulary, but he did not know the word “death”. But it’s so common to us that we make it a delight to our palate. Our culture feeds us death one scoop at a time.

Monday, January 07, 2008