Looks Like I’m “It!”

Jason over at Already & Not Yet and Scott at Free Thoughts have “tagged” me in what looks like the opening move of some sort of chain blog, phishing scam. Next thing you know they’ll be offering to send me 100 million dollars like Princess Fayad Bolkiah if I’ll just send them my bank account and social security numbers. Yeah right. Listen boys, I wasn’t born in Alabama, ok?

Oh well, against my better judgement, here goes nothing.

List the 7 words/phrases you say most often:

  1. “Which is better, one…or…twooooo?”
  2. “Go Duke!”
  3. “Has anybody seen the laptop?”
  4. “Has anybody seen the remote?”
  5. “Have you finished your homework?”
  6. “Oh my back, my back, my back!”
  7. “Back in ’82…”

List 7 movies you could watch over and over:

  1. O Brother Where Art Thou?
  2. Chariots of Fire
  3. It’s a Wonderful Life
  4. Forrest Gump
  5. Master and Commander
  6. A Man for All Seasons
  7. Napoleon Dynamite

List 7 books or series you love:

  1. Ecclesiastes–The Preacher
  2. Mere Christianity–C.S. Lewis
  3. The Chronicles of Narnia–C.S. Lewis
  4. Orthodoxy–G.K. Chesterton
  5. Portofino (The Calvin Becker Trilogy)–Frank Schaeffer
  6. The Preservationist–David Maine
  7. The Mitford Series–Jan Karon

List 7 things you can’t/won’t do:

  1. Dance
  2. Cook
  3. Break in line
  4. Blow a bubble
  5. Abuse Malachi 3:10 and Luke 6:38 to teach tithing
  6. Ever, under any circumstances, root for the UNC Tarheels
  7. Shop at 5:00AM on “Black Friday”

List 7 things you want to do before you die:

  1. Learn to dance
  2. Become a breakfast chef
  3. See my sons grow up to honorable manhood
  4. Visit Italy and England with my wife
  5. Attend a Duke basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium
  6. Become a dean at a college or university
  7. Make my living as a writer

List 7 things that attract you to your spouse:

  1. The way she tears up while watching a sentimental movie or commercial
  2. When she really laughs at something I said or wrote
  3. Her college co-ed figure
  4. Her passion for reading and her open mind
  5. The way she looks anybody in the eyes and politely tells them what she thinks
  6. Her loyalty to and love for her sons
  7. Watching her read a book and snuggle with Gracie (our dog) on the couch

Friends to tag:

  1. Ed!
15 Comments

  1. DJG

    I HATE the better one or two question!! Just so you know.

  2. mike

    djg–

    At least you only have to listen to it every now and then. Imagine what it must be like to have stand there every day and say it over and over!

    Hey, I think I have an idea! Maybe the CIA can adopt this technique as a more “humane” method of extracting information from prisoners. 😉

  3. scott

    A Man For All Seasons is one of my favorite movies–when Paul Scofield shouts, “Nevertheless” I still get chills.

  4. Ed

    Unfortunately, I can’t play in those reindeer games. I am the master of killing chain letters 🙂

  5. mike

    Scott–

    Isn’t that a great movie?! It was made in the time when attention spans were longer and people didn’t mind thinking instead of being titillated during a movie.

    I have many favorite lines, but if I had to pick one it would be Cardinal Wolsey’s (Orson Welles) ironic admonishment to Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield):

    “If you could just see facts flat-on, without that horrible moral squint…”

  6. mike

    Ed-

    Ah come on, you old Scrooge! I have to admit, it was an interesting thought inventory.

    You better join in–“you know who” may be watching and rechecking his list!

  7. DJG

    I feel your pain in asking the same question over & over…..mine is “do you have any money to pay down” to which I almost always receive a negative response!!

  8. Derek Jenkins

    “If you could just see facts flat-on, without that horrible moral squint…”

    Indeed. Indeed. 😉

  9. Derek Jenkins

    Curious though. What is it that strikes so deep about Thomas More. Is it his unflinching integrity to what he thinks is true or his unflinching integrity to the truth?

  10. mike

    Derek–

    Are you implying that there is something ironic about my fondness for that line? 😉

    “What is it that strikes so deep about Thomas More. Is it his unflinching integrity to what he thinks is true or his unflinching integrity to the truth?”

    Perhaps the following exchange might provide some insight into the answer to that question:

    The Duke of Norfolk: Oh confound all this. I’m not a scholar, I don’t know whether the marriage was lawful or not but dammit, Thomas, look at these names! Why can’t you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!

    Sir Thomas More: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?

  12. Derek Jenkins

    “Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it”

    – Pascal

    Would More add his Amen?

    Are you familiar with Luther’s appeal to conscience? I have pondered lately, in my own trials, whether his claim will excuse his action? Of course I do not deny the validity of a true appeal, and if one is truly unaware of the fullness of what may be at stake then may God be merciful, but, Luther’s problem was his unwillingness to recognize any guide to his conscience but Martin Luther. No other real authority existed for him (the Bible being abstract in principle until its meaning is made manifest by some human mediation).

    How does one reconcile a true appeal to conscience with a true submission to divinely instituted authority?

    For example, is it possible for someone to hear the gospel message (say a hearer of Paul’s preaching) and then subsequently make a genuine claim that his conscience does not bear witness to the message, and hence he cannot be held accountable to that truth?

  13. Ed

    Yes, you hit the nail on the head when you said “who may be watching”

  14. mike

    Derek,

    Quid est veritas? 🙂

    Perhaps at least a little sliver of truth may be found in Mark 9:38-41.

  15. Derek Jenkins

    Kyrie eleison,
    Christe eleison,
    Kyrie eleison

    Doesn’t Mark 9:34-41 need to be understood in light of Mt 7:21-23?

    What a nearly impossible work the Sacred Scriptures are to understand. Who can tell us what a passage means, or at least what it doesn’t mean?

    Merry Christmas

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